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( 


-LPHu__ 


W  H  HAZEN 

ROULETTE 


?UR' 


PA 


JOHN  C.  FRENCH 
From  a  Photograph  Taken  in  1912 


FRONTISPIECE 


The  Passenger  Pigeon 

In  Pennsylvania 


Its  Remarkable  History,  Habits  and  Extinction,  with 
Interesting  Side  Lights  on  the  Folk  and 
Forest  Lore  of  the  Alleghenian 
Region  of  the  old  Keystone  State 

BY 

JOHN  G.  FRENCH 

Roulette,  Potter  County,  Pa. 

With  Ghapters  by 

Samuel  N.  Rhoads,  author  of  “Mammals  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey”,  Dr.  B.  H.  Warren  author  of  “The  Birds  of 
Pennsylvania”,  Henry  W.  Shoemaker,  Litt.  D.,  Charles  H. 
Eldon,  James  V.  Bennett,  John  H.  Chatham,  and  others. 


,,The  Wild  Pigeons  on  Leaving  us  Repair  to  Some  Undiscovered 
Satellite  Accompanying  the  Earth  at  a  Near  Distance.” 
—Cotton  Mather. 


ALTOONA,  PENNSYLVANIA 
Published  by  the  Altoona  Tribune  Company 
19  19 

Copyright:  All  Rights  Reserved 


> 


a<- 


This  Monograph  of 


vT 


<3  O' 


The  Passenger  Pigeon  of  America 

Is  Dedicated  to 
The  Memory  of  My  Father 

Nehemiah  French,  1818-1906 

An  Apostle  of  Bird  Protection 

And  to 

Colonel  Henry  W.  Shoemaker 

Advocate  of  Conservation  of  Bird  and  Animal  Life 
In  Pennsylvania 

Who  Prompted  Me  to  Write  It 

JOHN  C.  FRENCH 


Roulette,  Pennsylvania,  July  15,  1918 


11  Russians  believe  that 'pigeons  are  the  sons  of  erring 
Christians — E.  J.  Dillon. 


‘ 1  Why  then ,  Sir,  I  will  take  a  little  liberty  to  tell, 
or  rather  to  remember  you ,  what  is  said  of  Turtle  Doves; 
first,  that  they  silently  plight  their  troth  and  marry ;  and 
that  then  the  survivor  scorns,  as  the  Thracian  women  are 
said  to  do,  to  outlive  his  or  her  mate,  and  this  is  taken  for 
a  truth,  and  if  the  survivor  should  ever  couple  with  another, 
then  not  only  the  living  but  the  dead,  be  it  either  the  he  or 
the  she,  is  denied  the  name  and  honor  of  a  true  Turtle  Dove” 

— Isaak  Walton 


INDEX 


Pages 

Introductory  Preface  -  -5-6 

I.  Retrospective  Lore  and  Legend  -  7-10 

II.  Customs,  Flights  and  Nesting 

Grounds  -  -  -  -  11-  16 

III.  Development,  Food  and  Decline 

— Shooting  arjd  Netting  the 
Birds  -  -  -  -  -17-22 

IV.  In  Pennsylvania  and  Elsewhere  23-  28 

V.  Observations  in  the  Susquehanna 
Valley,  Told  by  a  Pioneer  Octo¬ 
genarian  -  -  29-  33 

VI.  Some  Kentucky  Observations,  by 

Alexander  Wilson  -  -  34-  38 

VII.  Comments  of  an  Eminent  Ob¬ 
server,  John  J.  Audubon,  in 
Kentucky  -  -  -  -39-44 

VIII.  The  Romance  of  Numbers  and 
Testimony  of  Living  Men  as  to 
the  Reality  of  Figures  Consid¬ 
ered  Marvelous  -  45-  49 

IX.  The  Rate  of  Reproduction  and 

Decline  -  50-  54 


NDEX — Continued 


Pages 

X.  Nesting  Cities  and  Extinction  of 

This  Bird  -  55-  61 

XI.  Present  Day  Economics  and  In¬ 
fluence  as  Food  Supply  -  -  62-  66 

XII.  Some  Information  About  Their 

Characteristics,  Classification 
and  Peculiarities  -  67-  71 

XIII.  Other  American  Varieties  Also 

Noticed  -  -  -  -  72-  77 

XIV.  Some  Adaptable  Foreign  Varieties  78-  83 

XV.  Their  Prehistoric  Environment  -  84-  89 

XVI.  An  Observer’s  Recollection  of  the 

Passenger  Pigeon,  Once  so 
Numerous,  Now  Extinct  -  90-109 

XVII.  Our  Forest  Followed  the  Pas¬ 
senger  Pigeons  -  110-122 

XVIII.  More  About  the  Passenger  Pigeon  123-129 

XIX.  “The  Pioneers”  -  -  -  130-134 

XX.  The  Bingham  Estate  -  -  135-139 

XXI.  Romances  of  an  Old  Forest  Road  140-145 

XXII.  The  Indian  Marathon  -  -  146-151 

XXIII.  From  Forest  Lore  and  Observa¬ 
tions  -----  152-155 


I NDEX — Continued 


Pages 

XXIV.  A  Hit  From  the  Shoulder  -  -  156-459 

XXV.  Biographical  Outlines  -  -  160-167 

XXVI.  Biographical  Data  of  Otis  J.  P. 

Lyman  -  168-170 

XXVII.  The  Passenger  Pigeon — Its  Last 

Phase  -----  171-186 

XXVIII.  Last  Survivor  of  Wild  Pigeons, 

Dead  -  -  -  -  -  187-196 

XXIX.  What  Exterminated  the  Passenger 

Pigeon  -----  197-215 

•XXX.  Flight  of  Pigeons  -  -  -  216-222 

XXXI.  How  the  Passenger  Pigeon  Came 

to  an  Untimely  End  -  -  223-234 

XXXII.  Pigeon  Flocks  in  Wisconsin  -  235-246 

XXXIII.  The  Dove  Not  a  Peace  Bird  -  247-251 

XXXIV.  Stray  Passenger  Pigeons  -  -  252-254 

XXXV.  Wild  Pigeon  Hunter  a  Kidnapper  255-257 


INTRODUCTORY  PREFACE 


THROUGH  the  kindness  of  its  sponsor,  my  good 
friend,  Col.  Henry  W.  Shoemaker,  I  have  had 
the  privilege  of  reading  the  proof  sheets  of  Mr. 
French’s  Passenger  Pigeon  Monograph. 

Of  later  time  a  great  deal  his  been  written  upon 
this  fascinating  subject.  Of  necessity  most  of  it  has 
either  related  to  the  period  of  the  annihilation  of  this 
remarkable  bird,  or  to  a  compilation  of  early  litera¬ 
ture  of  its  life  history,  much  of  which  was  derived 
from  most  unreliable  sources. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  other  single  publication  of 
modern  times  contains  as  much  intimate  and  first¬ 
hand  personal  observation  as  this  regarding  the  habits 
of  the  Passenger  Pigeon  throughout  the  year,  in  aJ 
well  defined  and  typical  position  of  its  breeding 
range.  Very  few  statements  of  fact  are  to  be  ques¬ 
tioned  and  many  of  the  author’s  generalizations  are 
truly  inspiring  and  increase  our  appreciation  of  this 
great  tragedy  in  Avian  history.  Here,  too,  we  find 
recorded,  probably  for  the  first  time  in  literature,  an: 
authentic  narration  of  the  part  this  bird  played  in  the 
mythology  and  folk-lore  of  the  Algonquin  Indians. 

It  is  to  be  hoped,  when  the  inevitable  demand  for 
a  second  edition  of  this  brochure  shall  make  its 
reprinting  necessary,  that  Mr.  French  will  rearrange 
his  chapters  to  conform  to  their  historic  and  chrono- 


logical  sequence.  This  will  not  only  disarm  the 
inevitable  critcisms  of  the  technical  perceiver,  but 
present  the  valuable  and  original  contribution  which 
he  has  made  to  the  Natural  History  of  Pennsylvania 
in  a  form  more  useful  as  well  as  readable  to  both 
layman  and  naturalist. 

Not  only  are  we  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  French 
for  this  labor  of  love  in  rescuing  facts  from  oblivion, 
but  our  gratitude  should  also  include  Colonel  Shoe¬ 
maker,  the  publisher,  whose  tongue,  pen  and  fortune 
have  so  long  been  devoted  to  research  in  the  Natural 
History,  Antiquities  and  Folk  Lore  of  his  well- 
beloved  State. 

Samuel  N.  Rhoads. 
Haddonfield,  N.  J.,  October  20th,  1918. 


i 


CHAPTER  I. 


Retrospective  Lore  and  Legend — Characteristics, 
Habitat  and  Description 

AMONG  native  birds  of  North  America  the  Passen¬ 
ger  Pigeon  was,  in  several  characteristics,  most 
wonderful,  the  living,  pulsing,  throbbing  and  pic¬ 
turesque  illustration  of  the  abundance  of  food,  pre¬ 
pared  by  bountiful  Nature,  in  all  her  supreme  ecstasy 
of  redundant  production  of  life  and  energy,  that  the 
native  tribes  and  our  early  pioneers  ever  knew,  or  im¬ 
agined  as  essential  to  their  Happy  Hunting  Grounds 
and  other  blest’  abodes  beyond  the  veil  of  physical  en¬ 
vironment,  where  the  longings  of  baffled  minds  should 
vanquish  the  fears  of  sinister  evils  and  realize  har¬ 
mony  in  the  triumphant  existence,  and  the  rapture  of 
attaining  the  ideals  of  unalloyed  peace. 

The  Passenger  Pigeon  (Ectopistes  migratorius)  was 
known,  east  of  the  Rocky  mountains  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  Hudson  Bay,  wherever  food  was  abundant, 
and  not  covered  by  snow ;  for  pigeons  could  not  endure 
snow,  although  the  cold  affected  them  little  when  the 
air  was  dry.  They  have  been  reported  around  the 
shores  of  Hudson  Bay  in  November,  and  in  southern 
Pennsylvania,  as  late  as  the  first  of  February,  when 
the  ground  was  bare  and  food  was  plentiful.  Migra¬ 
tors  seem  to  have  been  in  quest  of  more  inviting  feed- 


7 


8 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


ing  grounds  where  food  for  the  young  could  be  ob¬ 
tained,  from  the  forests  around  a  nesting  city,  within 
a  radius  of  about  fifty  miles. 

The  Passenger  Pigeon  was  a  voracious  feeder.  His 
favorite  food  was  beedh-mast,  picked  up  in  the  early 
spring  seasons,  when  beginning  to  germinate  and  ab¬ 
sorb  nitrogen  and  carbon  from  the  air.  But  the  bird 
fed  upon  numerous  grains,  nuts  and  fruits,  such  as 
buckwheat,  hempseed,  maize,  acorns,  chestnuts,  holly 
berries,  cherries,  blackberries  and  huckleberries.  While 
in  the  south,  much  rice  made  the  birds  fat  and  less 
active,  but  their  extraordinary  power  of  flight  re¬ 
mained,  for  they  have  been  killed  in  Pennsylvania, 
with  crops  full  of  rice  that  must  have  been  gathered 
by  them  hundreds  of  miles  away  in  the  Carolinas,  or 
in  the  Mississippi  valley,  beyond  Memphis,  Tenn. 
They  could  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  ocean  in  about 
three  days,  flying  from  island  to  island. 

In  color  the  Passenger  Pigeon  was  attractive  and) 
distinguished,  especially  in  the  male  birds.  The 
head,  part  of  the  neck  and  the  chin  a  slate-blue;  the 
lower  part  and  sides  of  the  neck  deep  slate,  “shot” 
with  gold,  green  and  purplish-crimson,  changing  with 
every  movement  of  the  bird,  or  in  the  rays  of  sunlight 
as  they  intensify  or  become  obscured  by  passing  clouds. 
The  throat,  breast  and  sides  are  reddish-hazel,  the  back 
and  upper  tail  coverts  dark  slaty-blue,  slightly  powder¬ 
ed  with*  black  on  the  shoulders.  The  primary  and 
secondary  quill-feathers  are  black,  the  primary  being 
tipped  with  dirty-white.  The  lower  part  of  breast  a 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


9 


pale  purplish-red,  and  the  abdomen  white.  The  long, 
pointed  tail  had  the  two  central  feathers  deep  black, 
the  rest  white,  taking  a  bluish  tint  near  their  bases, 
and  marked  with  one  black  spot  and  another  of  rusty- 
red  on  the  inner  webs. 

The  beak  was  black,  eye  a  fiery-orange  and  a  naked 
space  around  the  eye  was  purplish-red.  The  female 
was  smaller,  with  oaken-brown  breast  and  ashen  neck 
and  a  slaty  space  around  the  eyes.  An  adult  male  was 
about  16  inches  long,  while  a  female  scarcely  attained 
14  inches,  although  she  was  as  swift  and  tireless  in 
flight  as  he  was.  In  nest  building  the  female  did  the 
building  and  her  mate  fetched  materials — a  few  twigs 
rudely  woven  into  a  platform,  so  loosely  that  eggs  and 
young  can  be  seen  from  below  and  begun  and  finished 
in  one  day.  They  are  neither  artists  nor  craftsmen; 
for  many  nests  fall  to  the  ground  in  the  winds  and  eggs 
and  squabs  are  lost.  The  ground  was  covered  with 
the  ruins  of  many  homes,  under  the  nesting  trees  of 
their  colonies  and  animals  gorged  upon  the  young  birds 
nightly. 

The  Indians  told  quaint  legends  of  the  pigeons, 
when  they  returned,  awaking  an  honest  adoration  in 
their  hearts :  The  Spirits  of  men  came  upon  the  earth 
seeking  incarnation,  among  the  birds  and  animals., 
with  an  appeal,  “Ho,  Elder  Brother,  the  children  have 
no  bodies.”  But  they  were  unheeded,  until  the  pigeon 
came  and  answered:  “Your  children  shall  have  bodies; 
my  bones  shall  be  their  bones,  my  flesh  their  flesh,  my 
blood  their  blood,  and  they  shall  see  with  my  eyes. 


10 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


My  feathers  shall  cover  their  heads  and  their  legs  shall 
be  bare,  as  my  legs  are  bare.”  It  was  believed  that 
if  the  hair  were  lost  the  souls  could  never  reach  the 
Happy  Hunting  Ground. 


The  Forest  of  Northern  Pennsylvania 

(From  Altoona  Tribune) 

Following  is  an  extract  from  the  introduction  to 
articles  on  great  hemlock  forests  of  western  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  in  “History  of  the  Lumber  Industry  in  the 
United  States,”  from  the  pen  of  John  C.  French: 

“When  that  romantic  enthusiast,  Ole  Bull,  with  105 
followers,  founded  the  ill-starred  Norwegian  colony,  in 
the  summer  of  1852,  on  the  waters  of  Kettle  creek,  a 
tributary  of  the  west  branch  of  the  Susquehanna,  in 
the  southeastern  part  of  Potter  county,  and  devoted  so 
much  of  his  time  and  energy  to  building  his  castle 
among  the  pines  and  hemlocks  on  the  bank  of  Bull 
Run,  an  almost  unbroken  forest  stretched  away  to  the 
westward  for  a  distance  of  more  than  150  miles.  It 
was  chiefly  mature  hemlock  timber  and  included  sev¬ 
eral  counties,  embracing  upward  of  5,000,000  acres ; 
but  there  were  strips  of  pine  fringing  the  streams,  and 
ridges  of  hardwood  timber  which  had  succeeded  the 
original  growth  of  evergreens,  wherever  forest  fires  or 
tornadoes  had  destroyed  it  or  where  it  had  succumbed 
to  the  insect  blight.” 


CHAPTER  II 


Customs,  Flights  and  Nesting  Grounds — Last  Ap¬ 
pearance  of  Noted  Birds  in  the  Central 
Hardwood  Belt 

PON  the  subjects  of  nesting  grounds  and  of  the 


U  migratory  flights  of  the  Passenger  Pigeons  the 
legends  have  been  numerous  and  wonderful,  during 
the  last  200  years  and  more.  Wherever  the  beech- 
mast  was  plentiful,  which  may  be  roughly  outlined  as 
“the  central  hardwood  belt”  and  many  conifer  regions, 
Surrounding  the  same,  in  which  grew  much  beech  tim¬ 
ber  in  groves  of  many  other  kinds  of  trees.  From 
the  Niagara  it  ran  east,  then  south,  passing  through 
central  New  Jersey;  thence  southwest,  following  the 
eastern  and  southern  edge  of  the  Piedmont  plateau  to 
central  Alabama;  thence  in  a  westerly  direction  into 
Oklahoma ;  thence  north  through  that  state  to,  approxi¬ 
mately,  its  northeastern  corner ;  thence  continuing  in  a 
general  northeasterly  direction  through  Missouri  and 
Illinois  to  the  northwest  corner  of  Indiana ;  thence 
northeast  to  Take  St.  Clair  in  Michigan ;  thence  east 
through  Ontario  to  the  place  of  beginning. 

The  territory  thus  included  embraces  parts  of  Can¬ 
ada,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Vir¬ 
ginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Ala¬ 
bama,  Arkansas,  Oklahoma,  Missouri,  Illinois  and 


11 


12 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Michigan.  Entirely  included  within  this  boundary  are 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  West  Virginia,  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee.  From  Lake  St.  Clair  the  belt  of  hard¬ 
woods,  including  beech  timber,  extended  in  a  north¬ 
west  direction  to  the  northern  peninsula ;  thence  west 
to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior  in  Minnesota,  and  thence 
north  and  east  to  the  vicinity  of  James  Bay. 

Throughout  this  hardwood  belt  the  Passenger 
Pigeons  were  known,  and  far  beyond,  when  they 
sought  the  foods  of  seasons  when  beech-mast  could  not 
be  obtained.  In  small  flocks  they  spread  abroad  over 
the  adjacent  forest  and  plain  to  procure  subsistence. 
Scouting  flocks  followed  the  receding  snow  line  toward 
the  north,  in  spring,  to  locate  their  favorite  food  for 
rearing  their  young.  When  it  had  been  discovered  in 
vast  quantities,  the  news  spread  and,  flock  by  flock, 
their  fellows  came,  formed  colonies  in  the  secluded 
nooks  of  the  forest,  near  the  heads  of  the  brooks  where 
they  loved  to  drink  and  bathe. 

Nests  were  prepared: — flimsy  affairs  in  the  tree- 
tops,  consisting  of. platforms  of  twigs  and  sticks  laid 
across  the  branches  and  loosely  bound  together — as 
soon  as  a  colony  had  gathered  in  one  spot.  Other 
wards  assembled  in  other  streams  near  the  first  colony, 
until  a  city  extended  forty  miles  or  more,  along  the 
chain  of  hills  from  which  the  streams  flowed  to  meet 
some  river  or  larger  creek.  The  width  of  the  city 
might  be  two  or  three  miles  or  much  more,  sometimes 
twenty  miles.  Between  the  wards  of  the  pigeon  city 
there  were  avenues  in  the  forest  where  no  nests  were 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


13 


built.  These  might  be  one  mile,  or  five  miles  wide,  so 
the  actual  nesting  colonies  occupied  only  3  per  cent,  of 
the  townships  and  counties  the  pigeon  city  was  built 
across,  sometimes  much  less  than  3  per  cent. 

In  early  days  pigeons  were  so  plentiful  that  a  for¬ 
est  would  seem  almost  entirely  occupied  by  nests  and 
the  roosts  of  numerous  pigeons  that  had  no  nests.  The 
males  cover  the  eggs  and  the  young  about  half  the 
time  and  females  go  in  separate  flocks  to  feeding 
grounds.  The  sexes  seem  to  be  divided  into  shifts, 
for  all  the  males  at  one  period  and  all  the  females  at 
another  equal  period.  But  in  this  there  are  variations, 
owing  to  distance  from  feeding  grounds.  The  male 
is  on  duty  while  the  female  is  away. 

After  choosing  their  mates  their  custom  seems  to  be 
of  strict  loyalty  to  each  other  and  so  devotedly  at¬ 
tached  that  when  death  takes  one  of  them  the  other 
remains  single.  With  abundance  of  their  favorite  food 
available,  two  eggs  are  usually  laid  at  a  nesting;  but 
it  has  been  averred  by  unimpeachable  testimony  that 
in  the  larger  cities  the  general  rule  is,  but  one  egg  to 
each  nest.  They  usually  nest  three  or  four  times  in 
summer,  as  they  follow  the  snowline  northward ;  but , 
in  winter  they  loaf  in  the  southland  and  become  fat. 

The  chronicles  of  earlier  writers  indicate  that 
Pennsylvania  streams  all  had  pigeon  cities  in  their 
environs,  the  Delaware,  Susquehanna  and  Allegheny 
valleys.  In  1870  there  was  a  large  city,  and  in  1886 
the  last  pigeon  city,  along  the  Allegheny  and  its  tribu¬ 
taries. 


14 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  winter  of  1876-7  was  an  open  one.  The 
farmers  of  our  northern  tier  counties  did  their  plowing 
in  December  and  January,  and  the  later  half  of  Feb¬ 
ruary  was  similar  to  Indian  Summer ;  so  oats  we’re 
sown  in  the  first  days  of  March  and  many  migratory 
birds  remained,  all  winter,  at  the  north.  Heavy  snow, 
falling  in  March,  caused  the  death  of  many  by  starva¬ 
tion  and  exposure.  Concerning  pigeons  in  the  south¬ 
ern  counties  of  Pennsylvania  Mr.  Hench,  of  Altoona, 
told  the  story,  in  a  letter  to  the  Altoona  Tribune,  last 
winter,  as  follows : 


A.  L.  Hench,  of  Broad  Avenue,  Altoona  Writes  of 
Great  Flocks  and  Hunting  Them  at  Their 
Feeding  Grounds 

Atcheson  L.  Hench,  of  2527  Broad  avenue,  is  num¬ 
bered  among  the  residents  of  this  city,  that  hunted  wild 
or  passenger  pigeons  in  this  vicinity  when  they  were 
numberous  at  masts  in  Cambria  county  back  some 
forty-two  years  ago.  In  the  following  letter  he  relates 
some  of  his  experiences  in  hunting  the  pigeons  and 
throws  some  light  on  the  habits  of  the  birds : 

When  a  boy  in  Perry  county,  Pennsylvania,  I  saw 
many  flocks  of  pigeons  in  wheat  planting  season,  and 
I  saw  their  depredations  on  the  wheat  fields.  In 
December  of  the  year  1872,  I  removed  to  Alum  Bank, 
Bedford  county,  Pennsylvania,  and  during  the  winter 
of  1875  or  1876,  about  the  first  of  January,  that  por¬ 
tion  of  the  Allegheny  mountains,  where  the  line  divid- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


15 


ing  the  counties  of  Cambria  and  Somerset  is  located, 
was  visited  by  millions  of  pigeons.  There  was  no 
snow  on  the  ground  during  January  and  February  of 
that  year,  and  mast  in  the  form  of  beechnuts  and 
chestnuts  was  abundant.  It  was  not  generally  known 
that  they,  were  there,  although  I  lived  within  eight 
miles  of  this  locality,  until  February  1.  About  that 
date,  their  presence  became  known  to  me  and  I,  with 
others,  went  up  to  hunt  for  them.  When  we  arrived, 
we  found  hunters  there  from  Bedford,  Johnstown, 
Pittsburg,  Altoona,  and  even  from  such  distant  points 
.as  New  York. 

The  pigeons  roosted  in  the  cedar  swamps  in  north¬ 
eastern  Cambria  county,  apd  in  the  morning  they 
would  fly  from  their  roosts  and  cover  thousands  of 
acres.  When  in  flight,  they  made  a  noise  like  a  pass¬ 
ing  freight  train.  You  could  stand  for  an  entire  day 
on  one  spot  and  either  shoot  at  those  on  the  wing  or  at 
those  which  settled  on  the  trees  nearby.  I  made  sev¬ 
eral  trips  during  the  month  of  February  and  about  the 
first  of  March,  several  of  us  took  provisions  and  feed 
for  our  horses  and  set  out,  intending  to  make  a  two 
days’  hunt.  We  spent  the  night  at  the  house  of  a 
friend  near  the  feeding  grounds  of  the  pigeons.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  night,  snow  fell  and  covered  the  ground,  bury¬ 
ing  the  mast.  We  went  into  the  timber  in  the  snow, 
but  only  a  few  pigeons  apeared.  After  that  no  more 
pigeons  were  seen,  having  left  for  parts  unknown. 
Some  people,  more  greedy  than  myself,  visited  their 


16  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


roosts  at  night  and  shot  them  from  their  perch,  bring¬ 
ing  them  away  by  the  bag-full. 

At  this  time  referred  to,  there  were  thousands  of 
acres  of  virgin  timber,  consisting  of  beech,  hemlock, 
sugar  and  chestnut,  in  the  locality  where  the  birds  were 
seen.  Since  then  the  mountain  has  been  denuded  of 
large  timber  by  the  operation  of  large  sawmills  and 
coal  operations— Altoona  Tribune. 


WILLIAM  FRENCH 

Of  “Pigeon  Lake,”  Tioga  County,  Pioneer  Hunter  of  Northern  Pennsylvania 


CHAPTER  III 


Development,  Food  and  Decline — Shooting#  and 
Netting  the  Birds 

WHEREVER  the  cradle  of  the  human  race  may 
have  been,  their  migrations,  we  may  be  sure, 
led  them  by  forest  routes  to  forest  countries,  and  it 
was  only  in  recent  times  that  the  plains  attracted  them. 
Shelter  and  fuel  were  necessities,  which  only  the  for¬ 
est  could  furnish.  Food  for  his  meagre  diet  was 
there  abundant  and  was  his  for  the  simple  effort  of 
taking  from  the  great  orchard  of  bountiful  Nature, 
whatever  appealed  to  his  appetite  and  his  pleasure. 

Upon  the  north  shores  of  rivers,  lakes  and  seas, 
where  the  sun  warmed  him  and  where  the  plants  re¬ 
sponded  earliest  to  the  warm  rays  from  that  orb  of  the 
day,  and  chief  deity  in  his  wonder  and  imagination,  he 
found  his  garden  in  full  blossom,  the  waters  swarming 
with  fish.  Succulent  roots  in  the  sandy  soil  supplied 
the. starchy  food  he  required  and  back  in  the  forest, 
fat  young  pigeons  fell  from  the  trees  to  supply  his  de¬ 
sire  for  flesh  and  oil. 

From  the  forest  he  gathered  fuel  for  his  fire,  poles 
and  boughs  for  a  lodge  to  protect  him  from  storm 
and  cold,  and  weapons  for  defense  from  the  serpents 
and  predatory  animals.  He  found  fruit  and  nuts 
hanging  upon  the  trees  and  the  winds  shook  them  until 
they  dropped  at  his  feet.  In  the  cool  water  he  bathed 


17 


18 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


his  rugged  body  and  retired  to  his  lodge  for  refresh¬ 
ing  sleep,  and  to  deram  of  further  pleasures  on  the 
morrow ;  for  his  domain  was  undisturbed  by  envious 
hatreds. 

He  was  free  to  devise  new  things  for  his  pleasure 
and  to  read  the  riddle  of  life,  as  he  beheld  it,  and  to 
improvise,  by  conjecture,  the  laws  of  the  narrow  uni¬ 
verse  about  him.  No  doubt,  he  thought  himself  the 
recipient  of  all  the  blessings  known  to  intelligence  and 
benevolent  solicitude  for  his  comfort.  This  vision  was 
impressed  upon  his  soul  while  he  was  passing  from  the 
shadow  land  of  youth — race  infancy — to  the  field  of 
greater  efforts  that  should  develop  forces  in  him,  then 
undreamed  of ;  but  essential  to  the  plan  of  evolution 
from  troglodyte  to  responsible  man.  This  early  im¬ 
pression  became  his  Happy  Hunting  Ground. 

By  observation  he  learned  that  the  mysterious  Pas¬ 
senger  Pigeon  returned  to  his  forest  for  nesting  only 
when  food  from  the  beech  ( Fagus  Americana )  was  in 
abundance — a  surplus  of  beechnuts,  over  and  above 
the  quantities  consumed  by  other  birds  and  stored  for 
winter  use  by  the  little  animals.  Compared  with  the 
conifers,  all  broad-leaved  trees  are  but  recent  arrivals 
in  the  evolution  of  plant  forms  upon  the  earth;  and 
the  beech  tree  came  at  the  end  of  that  development, 
about  the  last  to  develop,  of  all  our  tree  species  that 
bear  nuts.  In  recent  times,  then,  the  beech  tree  de¬ 
veloped  to  its  maximum  of  development  and  suffer¬ 
ed  a  rapid  decline.  The  passenger  pigeons  developed 
with  the  beech,  and  declined  in  numbers,  as  the  beech 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


19 


forests,  in  America,  shrank  to  very  unimportant  and 
meagre  forests. 

The  best  beech  forests  of  our  times  were  on  inter¬ 
vale  lands  of  the  Ohio  river ;  its  tributaries ;  and  upon 
the  slopes  of  the  Appalachian  mountains.  These  gave 
most  of  the  mast  for  squab-feeding,  and  we  may  as¬ 
sume  that,  many  hundred  millions  of  the  old  birds — 
adults — existed  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury — 1801 — in  the  United  States,  vanishing  to  naught 
since  then. 

The  first  authorities,  writing  in  1810,  were  un¬ 
aware  of  other  nesting  cities,  even  in  Kentucky,  at  the 
same  time.  Wilson  saw  one  city  and  Audubon  saw 
another  city  at  the  same  time,  and  they  told  so  vivdly 
of  each  one  that  no  further  effort  was  ever  considered 
desirable,  until  it  was  too  late  to  make  new  observa¬ 
tions — the  pigeons  had  become  extinct,  or  -nearly  so, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century.  Only  one 
pair  of  birds  was  .reported  in  1901,  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  five  birds  were  all  that  anyone  saw  in  1906. 

Since  then  none  have  been  seen  in  this  country. 
There  are  pigeons  in  South  America  that  resemble  the 
passenger  pigeon  and  have  been  reported  as  practically 
identical;  but  this  has  not  been  verified.  They  are, 
very  likely,  a  smaller  variety,  living  upon  local  food 
that  is  in  such  ample  supply  they  have  no  need  to  mi¬ 
grate,  every  month  or  two,  to  find  a  store  suitable  to 
sustain  the  young  of  a  large  city.  Such  inaction  would 
demand  less  swiftness,  strength  and  wariness  to  avoid 
their  numerous  enemies — animals,  birds  of  prey,  and 


20  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


man  with  his  gun,  his  axe  to  fell  the  trees,  and  his 
nets  to  ensnare  the  parent  birds. 

The  primitive  inhabitants  of  our  country,  the  In¬ 
dians,  no  doubt,  welcomed  these  pigeons,  when  they  re¬ 
turned  in  spring,  and  regaled  themselves  upon  the  fat 
squabs  for  a  few  days ;  but  they  were  unsuited  for 
their  steady  diet  and  the  Redmen  soon  tired  of  them. 
They  would  be  unable  to  kill  many  of  the  adult  birds 
with  their  primitive  weapons.  They  respected  the 
nesting  ground  and  spent  much  time  in  slaying  the 
enemies  of  the  birds  that  gathered  in  great  numbers 
to  gorge  themselves  upon  the  young  birds,  as  they  flut¬ 
tered  to  the  ground,  when  learning  to  fly. 

Then  the  White  men  came,  with  no  legends  of  grati¬ 
tude  for  a  benevolent  incarnation;  no  sacred  regard 
for  the  feathers,  to  wear  as  head-dress,  ornament  or 
talisman  to  avoid  the  mysterious  confusion  on  the  way 
to  the  hereafter,  that  bare  heads  should  suffer,  among 
the  shades  of  departed.  Their  legs  were  not  bare  in 
honor  of  the  sacred  bird  that  had  endowed  Redmen 
with  incarnation,  yielding  bodies  for  the  children,  as 
fast  as  they  were  needed,  in  their  old  piety.  Fire¬ 
arms,  snares  and  great  netting  traps  were  used  to  get 
the  parent  birds.  With  axes  they  cut  down  the  trees 
and  took  the  squabs  by  tons,  and  tons. 

There  are  camp-fire  stories,  galore,  of  the  carnivals 
of  the  slaughter  and  the  orgies  of  the  feasts,  when  the 
day’s  work  was  finished,  that  are  better  buried  in  the 
oblivion  of  silence,  as  we  draw  the  veil  over  the  crime 
of  extermination  that  befell  God’s  own  messenger  to 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


21 


children  of  the  forest.  For  swiftness  and  endurance; 
for  mystery  and  mysticism,  the  Indians  venerated  pas¬ 
senger  pigeons,  above  all  visible  and  animate  beings. 

Their  numbers  fell  off  approximately,  at  the  rate 
of  ten  millions  each  year,  until,  at  last,  only  one.  great 
city  existed,  and  that  gathered  in  Potter  county,  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  in  1886,  centered  on  Pine  Creek,  the  Tiadagh- 
ton  of  the  romantic  Indian  legends.  Jim  Jacobs,  the 
Seneca  bear  hunter,  was  recognized  as  he  leturned 
from  the  celebrated  last  stand  of  the  Passenger 
Pigeons.  In  sorrow  his  shade  then  slept  with  the  an¬ 
cients. 

The  story  has  been  told;  why  repeat  it?  Men 
gathered  together ;  from  the  tides  of  the  sea  to  the 
great  prairies  they  came.  All  night  guns  boomed 
among  the  trees.  The  moon  was  red  in  the  clouds  of 
powder-smoke  that  arose.  The  Indian  hung  his  head 
in  anguish ;  then  crept  away  to  his  fate.  Next  day 
no  pigeons  remained — whither? 


Restoring  the  Forest — Vision  and  Prophecy 

As  written  in  1904,  after  reviewing  the  region,  in 
the  chapters  in  “The  History  of  the  Lumber  Industry 
in  America,”  by  John  C.  French,  we  find  the  follow¬ 
ing: 

“No  effort  has  been  made  to  preserve  or  renew  the 
forests  of  the  Allegheny  valley,  and  the  streams  have 
shrunk  to  mere  creeks  or  dry  beds  of  sand  and  gravel 


22  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


in  summer.  The  Allegheny,  that  once  was  large 
enough  to  promise  navigation,  is  transformed  to  a 
valueless  water  course  for  this  generation.  When 
the  waste  places  of  the  hills  and  valleys  shall  again 
become  the  beautiful  forests  that  once  crowned  them, 
the  streams  will  assume  their  former  volume  of  water ; 
for  the  rainfall  will  remain  longer  in  the  cool  embrace 
of  the  forests,  to  feed  the  innumerable  springs  that 
break  forth  from  the  rocky  cliffs  to  irrigate  the  slopes 
and  supply  the  streams.  It  is  estimated  that  only 
one-half  of  the  land  that  constitutes  the  Allegheny 
watershed  is  used  or  needed  for  agriculture.  The  re¬ 
mainder  is  now  a  waste  for  briars  and  brush,  or  partly 
grown  over  with  ferns  and  grass,  although  in  many 
places  foreshadowing  a  luxuriant  second  growth  of 
hardwood  and  giving  evidence  of  what  the  reforestiza- 
tion  might  be  under  the  skill  of  a  forester,  applied  to 
the  region.” 


CHAPTER  IV 


In  Pennnsylvania  and  Elsewhere- — A  Tale  of  Re¬ 
liable  Observations  by  John  Lyman,  a  Pioneer 

IN  the  annals  of  Potter  county  we  find  that  settle¬ 
ment  was  made  first  in  the  vicinity  of  Coudersport, 
and  at  Roulette  and  at  Burtville,  in  1804.  In  the  spring 
of  1805,  late  in  May,  a  hard  freeze  killed  all  the  crops 
and  the  forlorn  pioneers  had  no  seeds  to  replant  them 
in  their  gardens  and  meagre  fields.  Floods  in  all  the 
streams  made  it  impossible  to  cart  seeds  from  Jersey 
Shore,  on  the  Susquehanna.  John  Lyman,  a  youth 
of  18  or  19  years  age,  offered  to  go  by  boat,  down 
the  Allegheny  to  Olean,  or  Hamilton  as  it  was  first 
named,  where  Adam  Hoops  had  started  a  settlement 
in  1803,  to  get  some  seeds  for  their  urgent  need. 

With  a  companion  he  started,  at  once,  with  food 
for  the  trip  and  money  to  buy  seeds.  Seven  miles  be¬ 
low  Coudersport,  at  the  mouth  of  Trout  brook,  they 
landed  and  found  an  Indian  family,  planting  corn  in 
a  narrow  field  on  the  river  bank,  which,  with  the  In¬ 
dian  cemetery,  half  a  mile  below,  upon  a  high  gravelly 
bank,  and  a  few  deserted  lodges,  was  all  that  then  re¬ 
mained  of  the  Seneca’s  outpost  and  hunters’  town  of 
Allegheweo. 

At  a  later  date  Mr.  Lyman  bought  and  cleared  a 
farm  there,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
In  1866  he  told  this  story,  and  many  others,  to  the 
writer,  in  great  detail,  as  we  saw  thirty  Senecas  from 


23 


24 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


their  reservation  in  Cattaraugus  county,  New  York, 
encamped  upon  the  site  of  the  abandoned  town,  dur¬ 
ing  the  pigeon  nesting  near  there.  The  Indian  ceme¬ 
tery  was  made  by  platforms  in  the  trees.  Afterward 
Mr.  Lyman  buried  the  bones,  parched  corn,  arrows, 
bows  and  ornaments  of  the  Indian  dead  in  the  gravel, 
near  the  river.  It  has  been  enlarged  and  incorpor¬ 
ated  as  the  John  Lyman  Cemetery,  and  it  is  the  prin¬ 
cipal  place  of  interment  in  Roulette  township,  to  this 
day. 

In  late  May,  1805,  John  Lyman  bought  several  hun¬ 
dred  squabs  of  the  Indians  to  take  to  Olean  and  bar¬ 
ter  for  the  seeds  he  was  in  search  of ;  for  there  was  a 
nesting  then,  near  there,  along  Reed’s  Run  and  on  the 
hill  west  from  Point  Lookout,  where  the  canyon  of  the 
Sinnemahoning  was  overlooked  for  possible  intruders 
from  the  south.  Smoke  from  their  camp  fires  would 
betray  their  forays,  for  about  fifty  miles,  to  the  Seneca 
scout  and  he  would  paddle  down  the  river  to  Tunun- 
guam,  their  chief  town  on  the  Allegheny,  nine  miles 
below  Olean,  opposite  to  the  mouth  of  a  creek,  now 
named  Tuna  Gwant,  flowing  past  the  city  of  Bradford 
and  thence  to  the  river.  The  Senecas  would  then  be 
ready  to  defend  their  hunting  grounds,  when  the  in¬ 
truders  arrived. 

The  first  night  was  spent  by  John  Lyman  with 
Cyrus  Turner,  at  his  home  in  a  hollow  buttonwood  tree 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  river  at  Voemont — Wailing  Hill 
— and  he  went  through  to  Olean  the  second  night,  where 
he  sold  the  squabs ;  but  found  no  seeds  and  continued 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


25 


down  the  river  to  Warren,  Pa.,  calling  at  Tununguam 
on  the  way,  where  he  became  acquainted  with  John 
Titus,  the  young  chief  who  led  his  braves,  1814,  to 
Lundy’s  Lane  at  Niagara  Falls,  Ontario,  in  one  day 
— 80  miles — and  joined  the  fighting  Americans  at  sun¬ 
set,  the  record  for  infantry ;  and  also  stopping  at  Corn- 
planter’s  Run  in  Warren  county,  where  he  met  John 
O’Bail,  known  as  Chief  Cornplanter,  the  friend  of  the 
whiteman. 

He  found  that  Captain  Warren  had  been  to  Pitts¬ 
burg  with  rafts  of  pine  lumber  and,  upon  hearing  of 
the  freeze  up  the  river,  had  hustled  a  boat  load  of  fresh 
seeds  to  Warren,  which  had  just  arrived,  and  Mr.  Ly¬ 
man  procured  all  he  required  and  then  began  his  ardu¬ 
ous  return  trip — 100  miles  up  the  Allegheny.  With 
help  of  Indians  the  canoe,  loaded  with  seeds,  was  poled 
and,  in  swift  places,  hauled  by  towlines,  back  to  Alle- 
gheweo,  in  fifteen  days,  and  by  oxen,  on  sleds  onward 
to  Coudersport,  and  beyond,  to  Lymansville,  where  all 
the  gardens  were  replanted  by  the  24th  of  June,  and  the 
ruined  corn  fields  sown  with  buckwheat,  on  and  before 
July  4,  by  the  rejoicing  settlers. 

John  Lyman  told  the  story  of  the  flocks  of  pigeons 
he  had  seen  every  day  and  of  twenty  colonies,  in  nest¬ 
ing  valleys  along  the  fiver,  that  he  heard  of  from  In¬ 
dians,  and  estimated  that  these  twenty  wards  each  held 
a  million  adult  birds — 20  millions  in  all. 

Fireside  speculations,  in  doubtful  tones,  were  rife 
for  five  years,  until  a  nesting  city  along  the  Allegheny 
river  was  reported  in  1810.  Then  John  Lyman  and 


26 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Francis  King  of  Ceres  made  the  trip  over  again,  by 
canoe  to  Cornplanter’s  town ;  thence  on  foot,  returning 
across  the  segment  of  a  circle  made  by  the  river  in  its 
northward  sweep  through  fifty  miles  of  New  York; 
thence  southward  again  into  Warren  county,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania.  They  went  up  Sugar  Run,  near  the  boundary 
line  between  Warren  and  McKean  counties,  to  the  mag¬ 
nificent  beech  timber  around  Marshburg;  thqnce  down 
to  Kinzua  Creek  in  Lafayette  township  (which  was 
presented  to  Marquis  de  Lafayette  in  1824  by  William 
Bingham  of  Philadelphia,  when  the  distinguished 
Frenchman  revisited  us.  It  was  parcelled  and  sold 
to  settlers,  at  a  later  date,  after  a  forest  road  had  been 
made  through  it,  from  the  Clarion  river  valley  to  the 
Allegheny  at  Kinzua,  Pennsylvania).  They  went  up 
the  Kinzua  valley,  crossed  the  hills  to  Colegrove ; 
thence  through  Norwich  township  and  down  Parker 
Creek  in  Liberty  township;  thence  up  Heath  Creek  in 
Keating  township  to  the  Lookout  and  down  Reed’s 
run  to  the  Allegheny  river,  in  Roulette  township,  and 
up  the  river  to  Coudersport,  Pa. 

They  saw  pigeons  all  the  way,  in  that  vigorous  hard¬ 
wood  belt,  beech  predominating,  and  visited  fifteen 
nesting  colonies ;  besides  hearing  of  five  colonies  north 
of  the  Allegheny  in  Cattaraugus  county,  New  York, 
which  they  did  not  visit.  They  decided  that  the  es¬ 
timate  of  twenty  million  adult  birds  in  the  Allegheny 
nesting  city  of  Passenger  Pigeons  was  conservative  for 
the  year  of  1810.  During  the  same  month  reliable  ob¬ 
servers  have  recorded  other  pigeon  cities  of  equal  pro- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON*  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


27 


portions,  viz :  On  the  east  slope  of  Appalachian  moun¬ 
tains,  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania ;  in  Indiana  and 
Ohio  and  two  cities  in  Kentucky,  one  of  which  is  de¬ 
scribed  by  the  great  Audubon  and  the  other  by  the 
equally  scientific  naturalist,  Alexander  Wilson.  That 
is  the  data  for  approximating  these  birds  at  one  hun¬ 
dred  millions  in  1810,  which  was  recorded  in  each  lo¬ 
cality,  independently,  by  men  who  were  unknown  to 
each  other.  Each  man  of  them,  evidently,  believed 
that  he  was  telling  a  big  story  about  all  the  Passenger 
Pigeons  in  existence  being  gathered  together  in  the  lo¬ 
cality  of  his  own  observations. 

In  his  great  book,  “Origin  of  Species,”  Charles 
Darwin  has  given  us  comfort,  in  the  following  para¬ 
graph  of  Section  574,  viz :  “We  need  not  marvel  at  ex¬ 
tinction;  if  we  must  marvel,  let  it  be  at  our  own  pre¬ 
sumption  in  imagining  for  a  moment  that  we  under¬ 
stand  the  many  complex  contingencies  on  which  the 
existence  of  each  species  depends.  If  we  forget  for 
an  instant,  that  each  species  does  increase  inordinately, 
and  that  some  check  is  always  in  action,  yet  seldom 
perceived  by  us,  the  whole  economy  of  nature  will  be 
utterly  obscured.  Whenever  we  can  precisely  say  why 
this  species  is  more  abundant  in  individuals  than  that; 
why  this  species  and  not  another  can  be  naturalized  in 
a  given  country;  then,  and  not  until  then,  we  may 
justly  feel  surprise  why  we  cannot  account  for  the  ex¬ 
tinction  of  any  particular  species  or  group  of  species.” 
(In  these  chapters  we  are  endeavoring  to  make  plain 
the  cause  for  development  of  the  passenger  pigeons  in 


28 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Eastern  North  America;  and  they  persisted  so  long  in 
Pennsylvania  and  adjacent  states  of  the  Appalachian 
regions  of  mountains  and  valleys.  At  last  they  deserted 
their  nesting  place,  undoubtedly,  because  the  hunters 
had  night-fires,  appearing  like  a  forest  on  fire.) 


EXPLANATORY  NOTE. 

Tradition  may  be  wrong,  as  to  the  second  trip 
having  been  in  1810.  Most  likely,  the  second  trip  was 
made  in  1814,  the  first  one  in  1810,  as  written  history 
gives  1809  as  the  beginning  of  settlements  in  Potter 
County,  near  Coudersport,  and  1810  at  Roulette  and 
Burtville,  although  the  same  authority  says  that  Mr. 
Jaundrie  had  a  shingle-covered  and  sided  house,  and  a 
cleared  field  at  Jaundrie’s  Creek,  at  the  town  of 
Shinglehouse  on  the  Oswayo,  in  1806 ;  also  that  a  Mr. 
Butler  had  lived  there  previous  to  1797.  Perhaps  the 
renegade,  Walter  Butler,  from  Tryon  County,  New 
York,  sought  asylum  there  for  a  few  years. 


NEHEMIAH  FRENCH 
1818-1909 


CHAPTER  V 


Observations  in  the  Susquehanna  Valley,  Told  by  a 
Pioneer  Octogenarian — Reveries  and 
Reflections 

DURING  the  month  of  April,  1880,  I  was  with  my 
grandfather,  William  French,  m  the  Cowanesque 
valley,  Tioga  county,  Pa.  We  walked  together  about 
ten  miles,  one  day,  to  his  old  farm  at  Middlebury  Cen¬ 
tre,  seeing  a  flock  of  passenger  pigeons  on  the  way. 
He  was  then  88  years  old  and  was  hale  and  hearty. 
His  pigeon  story  was  interesting,  fur  it  was  of  the 
spring  of  1810,  when  he  had  been  only  a  boy  of  18 
years  and  had  made  his  first  trip  into  Pennsylvania, 
and  at  pigeon  nesting  time,  His  father,  Jeremiah 
French,  had  served  through  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  then  traveled  up  the  Susquehanna  from  his  father’s 
farm,  near  Shamokin,  to  Bradford  county,  where  he 
soon  married  Miss  Margaret  Van  Gorder  and  took  her 
to  a  farm  on  the  Chemung  river,  nortn  of  Elmira,  New 
Y  ork. 

It  was  an  old  Indian  clearing,  where  my  grand¬ 
father  was  born  and  remained  until  1834,  when  he 
removed  to  the  Pennsylvania  forest,  in  Tioga  county, 
and  made  himself  a  home  for  all  his  remaining  years 
of  life.  He  went  to  the  Van  Gorder  home,  on  To- 
wanda  creek,  during  May,  1810,  for  a  brief  stay  with 
his  mother’s  people,  and  to  work^a  while  in  a  sawmill 


29 


30 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


for  Amos  Bennett.  There  he  first  met  his  future  wife, 
Esther  Martin,  daughter  of  veteran  John  Gideon  Mar¬ 
tin,  the  scout  of  Oriskany  battle,  and  at  Burgoyne’s 
surrender.  He  also  became  acquainted  with  Miss 
Anna  Bennett,  a  little  girl  of  6  years,  and  a  boy,  John 
Grimes,  who  married  her  eighteen  years  later — the 
parents  of  Edwin  Grimes,  the  great  still  hunter  of  deer 
in  Potter  county. 

The  two  boys  went  to  the  pigeon  city  in  the  Sus¬ 
quehanna  valley  and  tributary  territory  in  Bradford, 
Tioga,  and  New  York  counties  north  of  them,  about 
fifty  miles  from  southwest  to  northeast.  The  old  birds 
flew  westward,  against  the  wind,  to  the  beech  forests, 
flying  low  and  fast.  They  returned,  flying  high  and 
leisurely,  to  their  nests.  Those  without  nests  roosted 
ii?  the  tops  of  the  same  or  adjacent  trees  around  the 
nesting  colony  they  were  attached  to.  Most  of  the 
nests  contained  two  young  pigeons,  some  nests  only 
one,  which  flew  to  the  ground  before  they  were  able 
to  fly  Tack  into  the  high  trees.  The  young  birds  trav¬ 
eled  to  the  eastward  or  with  the  wind,  picking  up 
nuts,  insects  and  everything  they  could  eat;  roosting 
in  low  trees  till  they  were  strong  enough  to  fly  back 
to  the  roosts,  and  then  join  the  old  birds  in  their 
flights  to  feeding  places. 

When  the  young  birds  fluttered  from  the  nests  in 
large  numbers  they  started  at  once  and  kept  going 
ahead,  in  spite  of  the  wild  animals  and  hawks  that 
killed  many  of  them.  If  they  came  to  a  road  they 
crossed  it;  a  stream,  they  flew  over;  or  they  fell  ex- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


31 


hausted  into  the  water  and,  flapping  their  wings,  swam 
tc  the  other  shore  and  ran  on  until  night.  When 
their  fat  bodies  were  reduced  and  muscles  grew  hard 
they  returned  in  flocks  to  find  their  kindred.  The 
injured  and  weak  birds  remained  behind,  for  the  old 
birds  waited  only  a  day  or  two  before  they  started  to 
the  next  place  selected  for  nesting  ground.  The  weak 
remained,  scattered  through  the  forest  and  briar 
patches,  until  strong  enough  to  join  another  migration 
or  until  they  were  killed  by  the  enemies  that  sought 
them  by  day  and  by  night. 

When  building  their  nests  the  parent  birds  selected 
a  clump  of  evergreen  trees — hemlocks  and  pines — by 
a  little  stream,  with  rising  ground  on  the  east  side, 
building  nests  on  all  the  strong  limbs  >  and  branches, 
except  a  few  near  the  top  for  the  roosts  of  those  not 
sitting  on  the  nests,  and  even  building  many  nests  on 
the  branches  of  the  deciduous  trees  that  were  stand¬ 
ing  among  the  evergreen  trees  within  the  boundaries 
of  each  colony  of  nests — the  wards  of  their  city — and 
all  the  trees  were  loaded  with  nests,  so  that  branches 
broke  down,  trees  came  crashing  to  the  earth  and  the 
.nests  of  eggs  and  young  birds  were  destroyed.  Wild 
beasts  of  prey  devoured  the  young  and  fought  over 
them  through  the  night,  making  a  hideous  uproar,  and 
owls  and  hawks  attacked  the  old  birds  upon  the  roosts 
above  the  nests. 

The  farmers  brought  their  hogs  to  the  grounds  and 
built  log  pens  to  keep  them  in,  feeding  them  upon  the 
young  birds,  or  they  turned  them  loose  each  morning 


32 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


to  gather  up  whatever  could  be  found.  Whole  fam¬ 
ilies  came  with  barrels  and  salt;  the  young  birds,  nom 
ten  ounces  to  twenty  ounces  weight,  were  dressed,  salt¬ 
ed  and  packed  in  barrels  and  carted  away  to  markets 
and  for  storing  until  needed.  Many  old  birds  were 
shot  and  disposed  of  until  it  seemed  that  only  a  few 
more  migrated  than  came. 

John  Grimes  and  William  French  saw  it  all  in 
that  spring  of  1810  from  Towanda  creek,  Bradford 
county,  Pa.,  to  the  Chenango  creek,  Broome  county, 
N.  Y.,  before  those  counties  had  all  been  created  and 
named.  They  investigated  and  thev  marveled  that 
there  could  be  so  many  pigeons  in  all  the  world.  They 
were  so  disgusted  by  what  they  saw  and  heard  that 
neither  of  them  ever  went  near  a  pigeon  nesting  city 
again.  They  sympathized  with  the  Indians,  who 
taught  conservation  of  the  young  birds  and  protected 
them  by  slaying  the  wolves  that  howled  around 
the  nesting  places — and  held  the  parent  birds  sacred 
during  the  four  weeks  of  incubating  and  feeding  the 
young  birds,  killing  for  their  food  only  the  unmated 
and  quiescent  old  birds  and  the  young  birds  which  fell 
from  their  nests  prematurely. 

They  had  learned  that,  when  a  colony  was  located, 
the  nests  were  built  and  the  eggs  all  laid  and  hatched 
within  sixteen  to  eighteen  days,  and  that  later  arriving 
parent  birds  established  another  colony  far  enough 
away  to  leave  the  first  colony  free  to  rear  the  young 
and  depart,  with  no  waste  of  time  in  waiting  for  the 
tardy  flock.  The  passenger  pigeon  was  a  bird  of  free- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


33 


dom  and  was  without  arts  of  self -protection,  other 
than  their  swiftness  of  flight  and  great  multitude  in 
one  closely  associated  city,  and  in  their  ingenuity  for 
massing  great  flocks  in  flight  in  narrow  columns,  in 
numerous  strata,  one  above  another,  and  moving 
rapidly  in  tandem,  each  flock  following  the  one  in 
front,  making  the  same  curves  and  identical  undula¬ 
tions  for  the  most  part  even  to  the  turns  and  depres¬ 
sions  of  the  leading  flock  in  a  brigade,  caused  by  the 
swooping  hawk  and  eagle  on  the  front  platoon  that  no 
longer  menaced  the  followers. 

In  confinement  they  seldom  raised  any  young  and 
they  rejected  all  efforts  toward  domestication,  so  far 
as  they  were  made  in  northern  Pennsylvania.  They 
were  unwarlike  and  sought  only  peace  and  plenty,  to 
thrive  and  multiply  to  the  limit  of  food  reserves  in 
regular  rotation.  They  migrated  to  find  their  favorite 
food,  as  the  snow  line  receded  each  spring;  yet  they 
perished  from  the  earth,  or  they  have  adapted  them¬ 
selves  to  a  different  mode  of  living  and  in  a  new  en¬ 
vironment  in  which  ornithologists  have  failed  to  re¬ 
cognize  them,  and  have  classified  them  under  an  alias. 

We  saw  them  feeding,  chiefly  upon  the  beech-mast, 
and  yet /geology  seems  to  affirm  that  they  lived  in  the 
cretaceous  age,  before  beech  trees  had  been  evolved 
in  plant  form;  why  not  re-adaptation? 


CHAPTER  VI 


Some  Kentucky  Observations,  by  Alexander  Wilson 
— Vivid  Description  of  Sacred  Pigeon  Dance 
by  the  Indian  Wolf  Hunter  Dan  Gleason 

DURING  the  month  of  May,  1810,  the  great  orni¬ 
thologist,  Alexander  Wilson,  visited  the  Ken¬ 
tucky  river  to  see  a  real  nesting  piace  of  Passenger 
Pigeons.  With  great  detail  he  described  what  he  saw 
and  heard  there,  and  a  few  of  his  illuminating  para¬ 
graphs  will  paint  the  picture  as  vividly  as  words  can 
possibly  reveal  a  panorama.  He  said: 

“As  soon  as  the  young  were  fully  grown,  and  before 
they  left  the  nests,  numerous  parties  of  the  inhabi¬ 
tants,  from  all  parts  of  the  adjacent  country,  came 
with  wagons,  oxen,  beds,  cooking  utensils,  many  of 
them  accompanied  by  the  greater  part  of  their  fam¬ 
ilies,  and  encamped  for  several  days  at  the  immense 
nursery.  The  noise  was  so  great  as  to  terrify  their 
horses,  and  it  was  difficult  for  one  person  to  hear  an¬ 
other  speak  without  bawling  in  his  ear. 

“The  ground  was  strewed  with  broken  limbs  of 
trees,  eggs  and  young  squab  pigeons  which  had  been 
precipitated  from  above,  and  on  which  herds  of  hogs 
were  fattening.  Hawks,  buzzards  and  eagles  were 
sailing  about  in  great  numbers,  and  seizing  the  squabs 
from  their  nests  at  pleasure ;  while  from  twenty  feet 
upwards  to  the  tops  of  the  trees,  the  view  through  the 
woods  presented  a  perpetual  tumult  of  crowding  and  v 


34 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


35 


fluttering  multitudes  of  the  old  pigeons,  their  wings 
roaring  like  thunder,  mingled  with  the  frequent  crash 
of  falling  timber.  For  now  the  axe-men  were  at  work 
cutting  down  those  trees  which  seemed  to  be  most 
crowded  with  nests  of  the  young  birds,  and  contriv¬ 
ing  to  fell  the  trees  in  such  manner  that  in  their  de¬ 
scent  they  might  bring  down  several  other  trees.  The 
felling  of  one  large  tree  sometimes  produced  two  hun¬ 
dred  squabs,  little  inferior  in  size  to  old  birds,  and 
almost  one  mass  of  fat. 

‘‘On  some  single  trees  upwards  of  a  hundred  nests 
were  found,  each  containing  one  young  only,  a  circum¬ 
stance  in  the  history  of  this  bird  not  generally  known 
to  naturalists.  It  was  dangerous  to  walk  under  these 
flying  and  fluttering  millions  of  birds,  from  the  fre¬ 
quent  fall  of  large  branches,  broken  down  by  the 
weight  of  the  multitudes  above,  and  which,  in  their 
descent,  often  destroyed  numbers  of  the  birds  them¬ 
selves.  I  had  left  the  public  road  to  visit  the  remains 
of  a  breeding  place  near  Shelbyvillc,  on  my  way  to 
Frankfort,  when  about  1  o’clock  the  pigeons  which  I 
had  observed  flying  northerly  the  greater  part  of  the 
morning,  began  to  return  in  such  immense  numbers  as 
I  never  before  had  witnessed.  At  an  opening  by  the 
side  of  Benson  creek,  I  was  astonished  at  their  appear¬ 
ance. 

“They  were  flying  with  great  steadiness  and  rapidity, 
at  a  height  beyond  gunshot,  in  several  strata  deep,  and 
so  close  together  that  could  shot  have  reached  them, 
one  discharge  would  not  have  failed  of  bringing  down 


36 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


several  birds.  From  right  to  left,  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach,  the  breadth  of  this  vast  procession  reach¬ 
ed,  seeming  everywhere  equally  crowded.  Curious  to 
determine  how  long  this  appearance  would  continue, 
I  sat  down,  with  my  watch  in  hand  at  1 :30  p.  m.,  for 
more  than  an  hour,  but  instead  of  diminution  of  this 
prodigious  procession,  it  seemed  rather  to  increase 
both  in  numbers  and  rapidity  of  flight;  anxious  to 
reach  Frankfort  before  night,  I  rose  and  went  on. 
About  4  o’clock  that  afternoon,  I  crossed  the  Kentucky 
river,  at  the  town  of  Frankfort,  at  which  time  the 
living  torrent  above  my  head  seemed  as  numerous  and 
as  extensive  as  ever.  The  great  breadth  of  front  which 
this  mighty  multitude  preserved  would  seem  to  intimate 
a  corresponding  breadth  of  their  breeding  place,  which 
several  gentlemen  who  had  lately  passed  through  part 
of  it,  told  me  was  several  miles  wide,  and  they  esti¬ 
mated  about  forty  miles  long,  in  which  every  tree  was 
absolutely  loaded  with  nests  of  young  birds. 

'‘The  nesting  was  begun  about  April  10th  and  all 
the  birds  left  by  the  end  of  May.  The  appearance  of 
large  detached  bodies  of  them  in  the  air,  and  the  var¬ 
ious  evolutions  they  display,  are  strikingly  picturesque 
and  interesting.  In  descending  the  Ohio  by  myself  in 
February,  I  often  rested  on  my  oars  to  contemplate 
their  aerial  manoeuvres.  A  column,  eight  or  ten  miles 
in  length,  would  appear  from  Kentucky,  high  in  the 
air,  steering  over  to  Indiana.  The  leaders  would  some¬ 
times  gradually  vary  their  course,  until  it  formed  a 
large  bend  of  more  than  a  mile  in  diameter,  those  be- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


37 


hind  tracing  the  exact  route  of  their  predecessors. 
This  would  continue  sometimes  long  after  both  ex¬ 
tremities  were  beyond  the  reach  of  sight;  so  that  the 
whole,  with  its  glittering  undulations,  marked  a  space 
on  the  face  of  the  heavens  resembling  the  windings  of 
a  vast  and  majestic  river. 

“When  the  bend  became  very  great,  the  birds,  as 
if  sensible  of  the  unnecessarily  circuitous  course  they 
were  taking,  suddenly  changed  their  direction,  so  that 
what  was  in  column  before  became  an  immense  front, 
straightening  all  its  indentures  until  it  swept  the  heav¬ 
ens  in  one  vast  and  infinitely  extended  line.  Other 
lesser  bodies  united  with  each  other  as  they  happened 
to  approach,  with  such  ease  and  elegance  of  evolutions, 
forming  new  figures,  and  varying  them  as  they  united 
or  separated,  that  I  was  never  tired  of  contemplating 
them.  Sometimes  a  hawk  would  make  a  sweep  on  a 
particular  part  of  the  column,  when  almost  as  quick  as 
lightning,  that  part  shot  downwards  out  of  the  com¬ 
mon  track ;  but  soon  rising  again,  continued  advancing 
at  the  same  rate  as  before.  This  deflection  was  con¬ 
tinued  by  those  behind,  who  on  arriving  at  this  point 
dived  down  almost  perpendicularly  to  a  great  depth, 
and  rising,  followed  the  exact  path  of  those  before 
them.” 


Standing  upon  the  flattened  top  of  a  high  hill,  over¬ 
looking  the  Allegheny  valley,  in  1870,  Dan  Gleason,  the 
Indian  wolf  hunter,  told  me  about  the  pigeons,  which 
were  flying  past  us  then  in  many  strata,  some  overhead 


38 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


and  many  below  us,  in  the  valley  between  our  hill  and 
others,  south  of  the  river ;  with  waving  arms,  swaying 
body  and  nimble  feet  he  illustrated  the  sacred  pigeon 
dance  of  the  redmen  in  America,  based  upon  the  flight 
of  their  sacred  bird;  in  soft  cadences  he  sang  the  song 
of  “Wah-ho-pah,”  and  in  solemn  words  explained  the 
wonderful  birds  and  their  beneficence  to  his  race,  and 
to  their  ancestors  when  they  began  life  upon  the  earth ; 
how  a  warrior’s  hair  must  not  be  lost,  for  it  represents 
the  feathers  of  the  sacred  bird  and  preserves  his  soul 
for  the  immortal  bliss  of  the  Happy  Hunting  Ground. 
When  the  hair  is  lost  there  can  be  no  blessed  im¬ 
mortality,  for  on  the  journey  after  death  they  would 
become  confused  and  take  the  wrong  trail,  followed 
by  all  who  offend  the  Great  Spirit — the  trail  that  had 
no  end  and  led  to  no  place,  an  eternity  of  wandering. 
That  was  all  the  punishment  the  evil  spirit,  Hobomock, 
could  inflict  upon  man. 


JOHN  C.  FRENCH 
From  an  Early  Photograph 


CHAPTER  VII 


Comments  of  an  Eminent  Observer,  John  J. 
Audubon,  in  Kentucky — The  Green 

River  Nestings 

\ 

EARLY  in  May,  1810,  John  J.  Audubon,  the  nat¬ 
uralist,  reached  the*  bank  of  Green  river,  in 
Kentucky,  and  described  the  nesting  ground  of  the  pas¬ 
senger  pigeons  he  saw  there  in  the  following  words : 

“It  was,  as  is  always  the  case,  a  portion  of  the 
forest  where  the  trees  were  of  great  magnitude,  and 
where  there  was  little  underwood.  I  rode  through  it 
upwards  of  forty  miles,  and  found  its  average  breadth 
to  be  rather  more  than  three  miles.  My  first  view  of 
it  was  about  a  fortnight  subsequent  to  the  period  when 
they  had  made  choice  of  it,  and  I  arrived  there  nearly 
two  hours  before  sunset. 

“Few  pigeons  were  then  to  be  seen,  but  a  great 
number  of  persons  with  horses,  wagons,  guns  and  am¬ 
munition  had  already  established  encampments  on  the 
borders.  Two  farmers  from  the  vicinity  of  Russell¬ 
ville,  distant  more. than  a  hundred  miles,  had  driven 
upward  of  three  hundred  hogs  to  be  fattened  on  the 
pigeons  that  were  to  be  slaughtered.  Here  and  there 
the  people  employed  in  plucking  and  salting  what  had 
already  been  procured  were  seen  sitting  in  the  midst 
of  large  piles  of  birds.  Many  trees  two  feet  in  diame¬ 
ter  I  observed  were  broken  off  at  no  great  distance 


39 


40 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


from  the  ground,  and  the  branches  of  many  of  the 
largest  and  tallest  had  given’ way,  as  if  the  forest  had 
been  swept  by  a  tornado.  Everything  proved  to  me 
that  the  number  of  birds  resorting  to  that  part  of  the 
lorest  must  be  immense  beyond  conception. 

“As  the  period  of  their  arrival  approached  their 
foes  anxiously  prepared  to  receive  them ;  some  were 
furnished  with  iron  pots  containing  sulphur,  others 
with  torches  of  pine-knots;  many  with  poles  and  the 
rest  with  guns.  The  sun  was  lost  to  our  view,  yet  not 
a  pigeon  had  arrived.  Everything  was  ready  and  all 
eyes  were  gazing  on  the  clear  sky,  which  appeared  in 
glimpses  amidst  the  tall  trees.  Suddenly  there  burst 
forth  a  general  cry  of  ‘Here  they  come !’  The  noise 
which  they  made,  though  yet  distant,  reminded  one  of 
a  hard  gale  at  sea,  passing  through  the  rigging  of  a 
close-reefed  vessel. 

“As  the  birds  arrived  and  passed  over  me  I  felt 
a  current  of  air  that  surprised  me.  Thousands  were 
soon  knocked  down  by  the  pole-men ;  the  birds  con¬ 
tinued  to  pour  in ;  the  fires  were  lighted  and  a  most 
magnificent  as  well  as  wonderful  and  almost  terrifying 
sight  presented  itself,  the  pigeons  arriving  by  thou¬ 
sands,  alighting  everywhere,  one  above  another,  until 
solid  masses  as  large  as  hogsheads  were  formed  on  the 
branches  all  round.  Here  and  there  the  perches  gave 
way  with  a  crash  and,  falling  on  the  ground,  destroyed 
hundreds  of  birds  beneath,  forcing  down  the  dense 
groups  with  which  every  stick  was  loaded.  It  was  a 
scene  of  uproar  and  confusion.  No  one  dared  venture 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


41 


within  the  line  of  devastation;  the  logs  had  been  pen¬ 
ned  up  in  due  time,  the  picking  up  of  the  dead  and 
wounded  being  left  for  next  morning’s  employment. 

“The  pigeons  were  constantly  coming  and  it  was 
past  midnight  before  I  perceived  a  decrease  in  the 
number  of  those  that  arrived.  Towards  the  approach 
of  day  the  noise  in  some  measure  subsided.  Long  be¬ 
fore  objects  were  distinguishable  the  pigeons  began  to 
move  off  in  a  direction  quite  different  from  that  in 
which  they  had  arrived  the  evening  before,  and  at  sun¬ 
rise  all  that  were  able  to  fly  had  disappeared.  The 
howling  of  the  wolves  now  reached  our  ears,  and  the 
foxes,  lynxes,  cougars,  bears,  racoons  and  opossums 
were  seen  sneaking  off,  whilst  eagles  and  hawks  of 
different  species,  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  vultures, 
came  to  supplant  them  and  enjoy  their  share  of  the 
spoil.” 

At  the  date  specified  above  one  of  the  parent  birds 
wTould  have  been  quietly  sitting  upon  the  egg  in  the 
nest,  if  there  was  one  only,  as  some  have  said,  or  the 
eggs,  ^  more  than  one,  as  many  reliable  men  aver,  hav¬ 
ing  seen  two  young  birds  in  most  nests  at  the  nesting 
colonies  they  have  visited,  while  the  squabs  remained 
in  the  nests ;  so  Mr.  Audubon  saw  in  the  air  at  one 
period  only  about  half  the  adult  birds,  for  at  nesting 
times  the  sexes  were  divided,  flying  for  food  in  flocks 
of  hen-birds  at  one  period  of  the  day  and  the  cocks  in 
other  flocks  after  the  hens  had  returned  to  take  their 
places  on  the  nests.  Mr.  Wilson  described  the  nesting 
he  saw,  on  Kentucky  river,  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles 


42 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


away,  about  two  weeks  after  the  eggs  were  hatched 
and  the  squabs  ready  to  leave  their  nests.  Mr.  Audu¬ 
bon  did  not  wait  for  the  squab  period,  but  floated  down 
the  river  in  his  boat  to  the  Ohio,  contemplating  the 
flight  of  pigeons  above  him — rising  from  the  horizon, 
‘‘sort  of  a  columbine  Vesuvius’’ — and  relieved  his  feel¬ 
ings  by  writing  a  description  of  the  appearance  in  the 
heavens,  every  day  of  his  trip  to  Evanston,  Indiana, 
similar  to  what  has  already  been  quoted  from  Mr.  Wil¬ 
son  in  a  previous  chapter,  upon  a  similar  observation. 

Mr.  Audubon  concluded  his  notes  with  the  follow¬ 
ing  words : 

“But  I  cannot  describe  to  you  the  extreme  beauty 
of  their  aerial  evolutions  when  a  hawk  chanced  to 
press  upon  the  rear  of  a  flock.  At  once,  like  a  torrent, 
and  with  a  noise  like  thunder,  they  rushed  into  a  com¬ 
pact  mass,  pressing  upon  each  other  towards  the  cen¬ 
tre.  In  these  almost  solid  masses  they  darted  forward 
in  undulating  and  angular  lines,  descended  and  swept 
close  over  the  earth  with  inconceivable  velocity,  mount¬ 
ed  perpendicularly  so  as  to  resemble  a  vast  column,  and 
when  high  were  seen  wheeling  and  twisting  within 
their  continued  lines,  which  then  resembled  the  coils  of 
a  gigantic  serpent.” 

The  birds  flew  with  such  martial  exactness,  accord¬ 
ing  to  C.  EL  Shearer,  of  Reading,  who  painted  the  great 
picture  “The  Flight  of  the  Wild  Pigeons”  that  when 
they  became  too  compact  or  congested,  numbers  of 
them  dropped  in  great  spirals  and  resumed  the  flight 
at  a  lower  strata. 


JOHN  LYMAN 
1786-1873 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


43 


With  that  much  we  must  be  satisfied,  so  far  as 
clumsy  words  in  ink  are  concerned.  From  Wilson  to 
the  author  of  “ Juniata  Memories/’  and  then  back  to 
Audubon,  who  admits  that  he  cannot  ‘  describe  the 
extreme  beauty  of  their  aerial  evolutions” ;  what  these 
authors  cannot  describe  about  birds  in  words  we  must 
avail  ourselves  of  imagination’s  artful  aid  to  compre¬ 
hend,  or  adopt  the  poetic  plan  of  the  Indian  and  ges¬ 
ture,  dance,  cnant  and  pray,  in  our  fervor  to  convey  the 
ecstasy  we  feel  at  certain  sublime  moments  of  our 
experience.  Those  who  have  never  beheld  a  flight  of 
wild  pigeons  have  never  had  an  opportunity  of  devel¬ 
oping  their  faculties  to  comprehend  such  a  sight.  They 
are  also  unable  to  assimilate  most  of  the  efforts  to 
develop  them  than  can  be  made  through  the  medium 
of  pen  and  ink. 

All  that  our  national  emblem  means  to  our  patriotic 
young  Americans  now  preparing  for  war,  the  passen¬ 
ger  pigeons  conveyed  to  the  Indian,  and  more.  They 
were  his  emblem  of  incarnation  and  hope  of  a  blissful 
immortality;  his  ideal  of  freedom,  and  he  emulated 
their  swiftness  and  their  energy.  In  their  vicissitudes 
of  life  he  saw  the  omens  of  his  own  struggles  with  all 
of  his  enemies  in  the  forest.  Against  his  enemies  he 
fought,  believing,  like  Hector,  that  “The  best  of  omens 
is  to  defend  one’s  country,”  and  he  slew  the  enemies  of 
his  patron  bird,  hoping  to  perpetuate  them,  and  enable 
them  to  increase  and  protect  and  cheer  his  children. 
Something  of  this  commendable  spirit  was  felt  by  the 
ornithologists  as  they  studied  the  pigeons  and  their 


44 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


nesting  cities.  The  ode  to  our  flag  by  Mr.  Berton 
Braley,  expresses  a  part  of  all  this  idea : 


The  Flag. 

Against  the  skies  Old  Glory  flies, 

It  never  looked  so  bright, 

For  now  it  seems  as  if  it  gleams 
With  some  strange  inner  light; 

As  though  each  thread  of  white  and  red, 
Each  filament  of  blue, 

Were  spun  of  spiritual  fire, 

The  flame  of  that  fine  high  desire. 

Which  thrills  the  nation  through. 

The  flag  on  high  it  greets  the  eye 
And  grips  our  hearts  somehow 
Though  it  has  passed  through  struggles  vast, 
Its  proudest  hour  is  now; 

Now  ’tis  unfurled  to  show  the  world 
That  willingly  we  give 
Our  lives,  our  all  to  Liberty, 

That  after  we  have  ceased  to  be. 

The  flag,  the  flag  may  live. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


The  Romance  of  Numbers  and  Testimony  of  Living 
Men  as  to  Reality  of  the  Figures 
Considered  Marvelous 

IT  has  been  said  by  a  great  author  that  more  ro¬ 
mance  can  be  found  by  intelligent  study  of  a  mass 
of  figures,  set  forth  by  a  statistician,  than  in  any  other 
form  known  to  the  writing  art.  The  magic  measures 
in  numbers,  orderly  arranged  in  columns  of  figures, 
appeal  more  strongly  to  many  mathematicians  than  do 
the  resounding  rhythms  in  Homer’s  poems.  The  story 
of  the  Passenger  Pigeon  is  neither  romance  nor  poe¬ 
try  ;  yet  we  must  not  ignore  the  figures  entirely.  The 
pioneers  of  Potter  county  were  incredulous  of  John 
Lyman’s  report  in  1805.  They  could  not  believe  that 
twenty  millions  of  the  birds  existed  along  a  hundred 
miles  of  the  upper  Allegheny  at  that  time.  To  them 
it  was  only  a  romance,  for  five  years,  until  they  re¬ 
turned,  and  experts  reported  that  it  was  history  and 
conservative. 

Of  the  Susquehanna  river  nesting  city  there  was  no 
cordial  acceptance  of  what  the  two  young  men,  William 
French  and  John  Grimes,  reported  that  they  had  seen; 
that  millions  of  the  fat  squabs  had  been  melted  down 
for  their  fat  alone ;  that  many  barrels  of  the  oil  went 
down  the  river  in  boat-loads.  Most  people  doubted 


45 


46 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


that  twenty  millions  of  adult  birds  had  been  in  that 
region  in  1810;  or  at  any  other  time.  To  them  it  was 
romance.  In  February,  1810,  the  great  flight  into  Ohio 
and  Indiana,  where  they  nested  in  April  and  May  of 
that  year,  was  reported  by  Alexander  Wilson  who  ap¬ 
proximated  their  number  in  the  following  manner : 
Taking  the  breadth  of  the  great  column  of  pigeons 
that  he  described  flying  over  the  Ohio  river  to  be  only 
one  mile,  its  length  to  be  two  hundred  and  forty  miles, 
and  to  contain  only  three  pigeons  in  each  square  yard, 
(taking  no  account  of  the  several  STrata  of  birds,  one 
above  the  other),  and  that  each  bird  consumed  half  a 
pint  of  food  daily,  the  amount  would  oe  seventeen  mil¬ 
lion  bushels  of  food  for  each  day. 

John  J.  Audubon  made  a  calculation,  based  upon 
two  birds  to  the  square  yard,  and  a  similar  daily  ra¬ 
tion  for  each  bird,  in  his  report,  uiing  approximately 
the  same  breadth  and  length  of  the  column — all  of 
which  assumptions  he  believed  to  be  conservative — 
and  estimated  that  eleven  million  bushels  of  food  would 
be  required  by  them  for  one  day.  This  means  four¬ 
teen  hundred  millions  of  birds  in  the  Green  river 
flights ;  about  an  equal  number  upon  Kentucky  river, 
at  the  same  time ;  and  the  flight  to  Ohio  and  Indiana, 
ir  February,  twenty-one  hundred  and  seventy-six  mil¬ 
lions  more,  making  altogether,  nearly  five  billions  of 
birds  in  the  three  states  along  the  Ohio.  Some  people 
consider  these  estimates  as  absolutely  poetical,  or 
founded  upon  a  “poet’s  license,”  at  any  rate. 

The  authors  were  absolutely  candid,  in  all  their 


47 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


conclusions,  and,  no  doubt,  they  got  their  estimates 
reasonably  correct;  but  neither  knew  that  Kentucky 
held  another  nesting,  than  the  one  he  saw,  at  the  same 
time,  nor  that  two  other  cities  were,  at  the  same  time, 
being  seen  by  other  men  in  Pennsylvania.  There  may 
have  been  several  more  nestings  or  big  roosting  cities, 
waiting  for  the  beechnuts  to  sprout,  in  some  northern 
forest ;  and  other  millions  of  birds  scattered  through  the 
forests  of  the  south.  The  young,  the  males,  and  the 
females  had  a  curious  habit  of  dividing  into  three  sep¬ 
arate  flocks.  When  the  young  leave  their  nests  they 
shift  for  themselves,  passing  through  the  forest  in 
search  of  their  food,  hunting  among  the  leaves  for 
mast,  where  their  parents  made  certain,  in  advance  of 
nesting,  that  plenty  could  be  found ;  and,  by  feeding 
in  distant  forests,  preserved  feeding  grounds  for  the 
young  to  begin  upon.  They  appeared  like  a  prodigi¬ 
ous  torrent  rolling  along  through  the  woods,  every  one 
striving  to  be  in  the  front. 

There  were,  probably,  four  broods  each  spring,  be¬ 
tween  Alabama  in  the  south,  beginning  about  Feb¬ 
ruary,  and  the  Hudson  bay  forest  region,  late  in  July 
and  August,  when  their  favorite  food  would  be  ready 
for  them  in  these  regions,  and  for  each  migration  an 
intermediate  date,  allowing  for  about  seven  weeks  be¬ 
tween  the  beginning  of  a  brood  and  the  succeeding  one, 
although  five  weeks  were  sufficient  time  for  a  brood 
near  the  former  one.  For  building  the  nest  and  lay¬ 
ing  the  eggs,  two  days ;  incubation,  fourteen  days ; 
feeding  the  young  birds,  sixteen  to  eighteen  days. 


48 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Their  migrations  usually  required  about  two  weeks  for 
getting  started  upon  the  next  nesting  enterprise.  When 
the  young  birds  left  their  nests  they  were  extremely 
fat,  and  their  flesh  delicious,  only,  as  every  one  ate 
pigeons  all  day,  and  every  day,  they  palled  upon,  the 
taste,  and  campers  soon  began  to  look  upon  squabs  as 
rather  coarse  and  common  fare.  However,  everybody 
was  ready  to  eat  squabs  again  when  the  birds  returned. 

The  controversies  over  the  questions  in  regard  to 
whether  a  single  egg,  or  two  eggs,  constituted  the  pro¬ 
duction  for  each  nest  and  each  incubation  were  a  great 
surprise  to  most  men  of  experience  in  the  nesting  col¬ 
onies  of  passenger  pigeons.  It  was  the  common  know¬ 
ledge,  among  both  white  and  red  men,  that  the  hen 
bird  should  lay  two  eggs  for  a  setting;  but  very  often 
she  delayed,  too  long,  the  work  of  building  a  nest,  and 
an  egg  would  be  dropped  while  she  wove  the  materials 
that  her  mate  brought  together.  In  case  of  such  ac¬ 
cident  one  egg  only  would  remain  for  that  nest,  and 
the  others  that  had  lost  an  egg  in  such  manner.  Often 
nests  were  precipitated  to  the  ground  by  the  wind,  and 
another  hastily  built  upon  each  location,  where  one  egg 
would  be  laid  and  incubated  alone.  Under  the  trees, 
during  the  first  days  after  nest  building  started,  there 
were  thousands  of  eggs  testifying  plainly  to  these  cas¬ 
ualties. 

William  Hazen,  a  Civil  War  veteran,  who  resides 
at  Roulette,  Potter  county,  Pennsylvania,  remembers 
going  to  the  nesting  colony,  in  1860,  upon  Parker  Run, 
Liberty  township,  McKean  county,  to  rut  down  the 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


49 


trees  and  get  the  squabs.  Two  young  men  carried 
axes  and  another  carried  a  double-barrel  rifle.  When 
they  felled  their  first  tree,  the  young  birds  flew  from 
the  nest,  as  the  tree  began  to  fall,  and  fluttered  away 
to  a  great  distance,  so  they  could  not  be  found.  There¬ 
after  the  axemen  pounded  upon  a  tree  and  caused  the 
young  birds  to  stretch  their  necks  and  show  heads 
above  for  the  marksmen  to  cut  off  with  his  bullets. 
There  were  two  young  birds  in  most  of  the  nests  that 
they  shot  into  for  squabs  that  day. 

William  Lehman  remembers  visiting  the  nesting 
colony  on  Bell’s  Run,  in  McKean  county,  in  1870, 
where  he  climbed  some  small  trees  to  get  live  squabs 
for  his  uncle,  Herman  Lehman,  who  had  built  a  park 
for  them  to  be  domesticated  in.  Nearly  every  nest 
held  two  squabs  and  he  got  fifty  fine  young  birds. 
Herman  Lehman’s  park  in  Ulysses  township,  Potter 
county,  was  large,  with  a  creek  running  among  the 
trees  of  the  enclosure ;  the  birds  thrived ;  but  they  bred 
very  little  in  confinement;  and  never  laid  more  than 
one  egg  to  each  nest.  Many  times  a  nest  was  con¬ 
structed  by  a  pair  of  the  birds,  only  to  be  abandoned 
and  no  eggs  laid  in  it,  or  when  an  egg  was  laid,  it  was 
not  incubated. 


CHAPTER  IX 


The  Rate  of  Reproduction  and  Decline— Passing 
of  the  Beech  Forests — Indian  Legend  of 
Hopah,  the  Pigeon 

WITH  the  pigeon  family  the  general  rule  is  to  lay 
two  eggs  for  each  brooding,,  but  variations  are 
common,  depending  upon  the  abundance  or  scarcity 
of  the  favorite  food  of  each  variety  of  these  prolific 
birds.  Passenger  Pigeons  seem  to  have  been  adapt¬ 
able  to  all  the  conditions  of  their  habitat  and  varying 
environments ;  laying  two  eggs  when  plenty  of  beech- 
mast  was  available,  within  a  flight  of  fifty  or  sixty 
miles  of  their  nests,  for  two  weeks  of  feeding  the 
young  birds ;  and,  generally,  one  egg  when  longer 
flights  for  the  food  would  become  necessary  for  a  con¬ 
siderable  part  of  the  time.  They  would  find  the  food 
required  for  three  or  four  nestings  each  spring,  as  a 
rule,  between  northern  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Miss¬ 
issippi,  at  the  south,  and  the  northern  limits  of  the 
beech  tree,  near  James  Bay,  at  the  west;  thence  east 
along  the  Laurentian  highlands  to  near  the  mouth  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  river  and  Chaleurs  Bay,  in  Quebec ; 
thence  southward  through  New  Brunswick,  Maine, 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  into  northern  New 
York. 

In  these  broad  forests,  we  may  be  certain,  were  to 
be  found  hundreds  of  millions  of  bushels  of  beechnuts, 


50 


W.  WALLACE  BREWER 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


51 


every  spring,  as  they  unfolded  their  two  fat  leaves,  up¬ 
on  slender  stems  that  were  anchored  in  the  rich  leaf- 
mold  soil  of  such  a  forest,  in  primeval  conditions.  We 
may  fairly  assume  that  from  four  to  six  young  birds 
reached  maturity  from  each  pair  of  the  parent  birds, 
to  return  to  the  southland,  each  autumn,  ahead  of  the 
snow  and  frozen  ground  of  winter  that  made  their  food 
impossible  to  find.  Before  the  nuts  fell  to  the  ground, 
through  action  of  frost  and  wind,  the  birds  would  beat 
all  the  nuts  from  a  tree,  with  their  wings,  in  a  few 
minutes,  while  all  was  a  scramble,  both  above  and  be¬ 
low,  for  the  same,  making  the  forest  roar  with  the 
sound  of  their  thunder.  Their  increase,  no  doubt,  was 
approximately  in  ratio  of  food  available,  each  year,  in 
their  pilgrimage  through  our  northern  region — the 
homes  of  their  Indian  devotees. 

From  the  criterion  of  greatest  utility  the  whiteman, 
certainly — the  later  inhabitant,  with  domesticated  poul¬ 
try — exceeds  his  predecessor,  by  many  multiples,  in 
efficiency  and  progress ;  but  the  Indian,  the  Pigeon,  and 
the  Forest  were  balanced  in  equal  and  horizontal  scale, 
upon  their  tranquil  existence  in  their  worlds,  where 
each  individual  met  his  foes  in  personal  combat,  for 
place,  for  food,  for  existence,  and  for  freedom  to  dom¬ 
inate  a  restricted  circle,  wherein  each  maintained  a 
place  by  constant  vigilance  and  preparation  to  resist  the 
natural  enemies  of  his  species.  The  white  men  came, 
and  the  rich  soil  under  the  beech  forests  became  fields 
for  their  enjoyment  and  profit.  The  pigeons  declined 
in  ratio  with  the  receding  forest — and  food  supply. 


52 


THE  PASSENG-ER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


They  were  hemmed  in.  They  could  not  reproduce 
themselves  on  other  food.  The  attrition  progressed 
and  their  lines  of  supply  were  shortened,  as  the  cleared 
helds  became  more  numerous,  or  as  forest  fires  de¬ 
stroyed  the  prolific  beech  trees. 

Where  the  beech  forest  flourished  the  soil  was  most 
fertile  and  easily  cleared  for  the  first  crops  of  agricul¬ 
ture;  grass  for  pasturing  the  domestic  animals  upon 
grew  luxuriantly  among  the  stumps  of  trees  removed ; 
the  stumps  soon  rotted  and  were  readily  removed  for 
better  crops  and  convenient  cultivation ;  the  soil  had 
been  made  rich  by  the  detritus  of  tree-life  that  had 
been  discharged  yearly  for  centuries,  and  the  farmers 
coveted  the  land ;  so  the  beech  forests  became  smaller 
and  more,  exposed  to  rapacious  man.  Three  million 
farms  were  cleared  in  the  forests  where  their  food 
grew  most  abundantly  and  the  birds  fell  as  victims  to 
their  direst  foe,  the  men  who  occupied,  these  farms  and 
sought  a  profit  from  the  nurseries  of  the  passenger 
pigeons  to  compensate  them  for  the  crops  that  had 
been  devastated  in  their  fields  by  the  hungry  flocks. 

The  farmers  were  never  friendly  to  these  questing 
birds  when  they  returned,  as  the  Indians  had  always 
been.  No  doubt,  the  passenger  pigeons  were  the  chief 
agency,  in  some  mysterious  way,  for  spreading  the 
seed  germs  of  the  beech,  as  another,  closely  allied  va¬ 
riety  of  pigeons,  did  for  the  nutmeg  trees,  in  another 
part  of  the  world.  The  passenger  pigeons  shrank  in 
numbers,  as  did  the  bison  on  the  plains;,  but  no  one 
realized  that  a  race  was  being  exterminated ;  and  even 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


53 


now,  after  thirty  years,  few  old  forest  men  can  believe 
that  they  do  not  exist  in  some  hidden  forest,  from 
'which  they  will  return  when  the  growing  beech  trees 
begin  to  yield  their  fruit,  as  was  done  in  former  times. 
The  decline  was  slow  at  first;  but  from  1865  to  1886 
.it  was  remarkable — and  then,  the  deluge ! 

Many  explanations  have  been  suggested,  such  as 
finding  a  few  hundred  drowned  pigeons  along  the  At¬ 
lantic  coast,  indicating  that  a  flight  had  been  over¬ 
whelmed  by  a  tempest  and  the  birds  all  drowned  in 
the  ocean.  A  similar  report  from  the  Great  Lakes. 
The  old  men  shake  their  heads^they  do  not  believe 
that  the  birds  we  knew  were  exterminated  in  such 
manner.  The  theory  of  a  fever,  caused  by  food-bound 
crops,  when  they  left  the  last  known  nesting  ground, 
in  Potter  county,  is  unsatisfactory.  The  nests  had 
scarcely  been  completed  when  the  pigeons  fled.  No 
young  birds  were  expected  to  feed  upon  the  curds  in 
the  parents’  pouch,  or  crop,  for  two  full  weeks,  at  that 
period.  The  theory  is  as  unsatisfactory  as  the  others 
have  been.  Once  we  heard  that  they  were  in  Mexico, 
feeding  upon  a  different  food ;  then  that  they  were  in 
Columbia,  clothed  in  gorgeous  plumage,  as  became  a 
tropical  bird,  and  last  that  they  were  in  Chile,  in  the 
same  plumage  they  wore  when  here,  with  irridescent 
hues  that  made  them  familiar  to  a  Wisconsin  expert — 
as  all  old-time  pine  timber  cruisers  were.  None  of 
these  explanations  satisfy  our  question.  We  are  still 
speculating — and  questing — about  it. 


54 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Two  young  men  climbed  Tuscarora  hill,  north  of 
the  Cowanesque,  to  find  the  “top  of  the  world.”  That 
was  in  1836  and  they  were  about  17  years  old.  One 
was  Nehemiah  French,  my  father;  the  other  was  John 
Churchill,  my  mother’s  eldest  brother.  They  decided 
to  inquire  of  Chingachkung,  the  old  Indian  at  Academy 
Corners,  how  to  find  the  peak  they  sought.  The  In¬ 
dian  pondered  a  while  and  then  began  his  legend: 
When  the  world  was  young,  Moqua,  the  ruler  of  the 
rivers,  dwelt  there  and  raised  his  children.  Cowan, 
the  delighted,  departed  toward  the  morning,  until  he 
met  and  wedded  Tioghnioga,  near  our  village.  Gen¬ 
esee  went  toward  the  pole-star,  fell  over  the  cliffs  and, 
at  last,  leaped  into  the  arms  of  the  Almighty,  Ontario ; 
Oswayo  went  to  the  northwestward  and  wedded  Hon¬ 
ey  oye;  Ohe-Yu  now  called  Allegheny  departed  on  a 
long  journey,  toward  the  evening  star,  where  he  met 
and  wedded  Gahela,  daughter  of  the  mighty  Monon  of 
the  southern  mountains.  Tiadaghton  went  toward  the 
south  and  was  taken  for  wife  of  Shamoque,  brother  of 
the  crooked  river — -the  Susquehanna.  The  beautiful 
Hopah,  the  pigeon,  chose  to  wed  with  Manitto,  and  she 
dwelt  everywhere.  Then  the  boys  found  the  top  of  the 
world,  where  the  rivers  start  from. 


CHAPTER  X 


Nesting  Cities  and  Extinction  of  This  Bird— Com¬ 
ments  of  a  Forester  on  Signs  of  an 
Approaching  Nesting 

THE  last  pigeon  nesting  in  Pennsylvania  occurred 
in  1886,  as  has  been  already  emphasized,  although 
there  may  have  been  many  isolated  smaller  groups  that 
brooded  within  our  extensive  forest  areas,  since  then. 
The  cities  in  1866  and  in  1870  are  remembered  very 
distinctly  by  many  men  living  in  Potter  county  and 
elsewhere.  Each  of  those  years  a  colony  was  estab¬ 
lished  about  three  miles  east  of  my  farm  in  the  Alle¬ 
gheny  river  valley;  and  they  flew  past  every  day,  to 
distant  feeding  grounds ;  the  hens  one  day  and  the 
cocks  the  next  day,  flying  rapidly,  and  returning  to¬ 
ward  night,  flying  high,  above  the  hills.  There  were 
other  feeding  grounds,  to  the  south,  and  those  that  did 
not  make  the  longer  flight,  each  alternate  day,  into 
Forest  county,  while  the  squabs  were  being  fed,  made 
the  shorter  flight  to  get  food  for  individual  require¬ 
ment.  On  each  morning  the  valley,  a  mile  wide,  be¬ 
tween  the  hills,  was  filled,  strata  above  strata,  eight 
courses  deep  at  times,  for  about  an  hour,  with  the 
multitude  of  birds  flowing  westward,  at  the  rate  of 
about  a  mile  a  minute,  going  after  food. 

The  roar  of  wings  was  like  a  tornado  in  the  tree- 
tops  and  the  morning  was  darkened  as  by  a  heavy 


55 


56 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


thunder  shower.  The  lowest  stratum  of  birds  was  just 
above  the  orchard  trees  and,  many  young  men.  with 
shot-guns,  tired  into  the  passing  flocks,  as  they  came 
into  range;  but  they  obtained  few  birds  in  that  man¬ 
ner.  The  speed  of  the  flocks  made  of  their  feathers 
coats  of  mail,  impervious  to  small  shot,  their  heads 
alone  were  vulnerable,  in  a  flock  coming  toward  the 
shooters.  Those  who  shot  into  the  rear  of  the  birds 
that  had  passed  them,  killed  many  birds  which  were 
usually  precipitated  into  fields  of  the  farms  beyond,  .or 
into  brush  and  briars,  far  away;  so,  many  dead  birds 
were  never  found,  for  they  hid  away,  in  their  death- 
struggles. 

Their  colonies  were  generally  regular  in  the  border 
lines,  being  parallelograms,  squares  and  circles,  even 
to  leaving  the  branches  of  an  occupied  tree  that  was 
outside  the  boundary  line,  bare  of  nests ;  while  inside 
the  boundary  lines  the  branches  were  all  covered  with 
them,  except  a  few  near  the  tops  of  the  .trees  upon 
which  the  male  birds  roosted  to  guard  the  females  sit¬ 
ting  on  the  nests  below.  The  venerable  Daniel  Ott,  of 
Snyder  county,  has  been  frequently  quoted  on  the  fact 
that,  “The  nesting  grounds  were  arranged  with  mili¬ 
tary  precision.” 

Some  of  the  facts  of  pigeon  nesting  cities  have  been 
clearly  and  plainly  stated  by  Mr.  C.  W.  Dickinson,  of 
McKean  county,  which  are  quoted  below:  “There  is 
only  a  small  percentage  of  the  American  people  of  to- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


57 


day  that  can  imagine  what  immense  bodies  of  pigeons 
there  would  be  in  a  large  nesting  city.  'The  nesting 
we  had  in  McKean  and  Potter  counties,  Pennsylvania, 
it,  1870,  which  was  the  largest  in  this  locality  since 
1830,  was  from  one-half  mile  to  two  miles  wide  and 
about  forty  miles  long,  running  through  an  unbroken 
forest.  The  direction  of  the  line  was  nearly  east  and 
west,  a  zigzag  line  to  keep  near-  the  main  range  of 
mountains  that  divides  the  waters  of  the  Allegheny  and 
the  Susquehanna  rivers.  The  male  birds  help  build  the 

nests;  as  a  rule,  one  egg  is  laid  in  each  nest . The 

hens  sit  on  the  nests  over  night,  while  the  males  roost 
in  the  nesting  or  in  adjacent  trees.  Now  the  birds  are 
divided  into  flocks  of  males  that  go  for  food  by  them¬ 
selves,  and  the  females  go  in  flocks,  for  food,  by  them¬ 
selves.  The  males  establish  the  line  of  flight  from  the 
nestings,  sometimes  going  sixty  or  seventy  miles  for 
their  food . The  males  take  the  places  of  the  fe¬ 

males  on  the  nests  while  the  latter  go  in  search  of  food, 
and  return  to  occupy  the  nests  by  night. 

“It  takes  about  fourteen  days  for  the  eggs  to  hatch, 
and  in  about  fifteen  days  after  hatching,  the  young 
birds  are  left  to  their  own  fate!  The  young  birds  are 
fed  all  their  craws  can  hold  and  they  are  so  fat,  when 
left,  that  they  can’t  fly  much  for  three  or  four  days. 
As  soon  as  they  get  full  use  of  their  wings,  they  know 
where  to  go,  for  they  then  follow  the  same  line  of 
flight  the  old  birds  took  a  week  before.  The  old  birds 


58 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


do  not  feed  near  the  nestings.  That  food  is  left  for 
the  young  to  live  on  while  getting  the  use  of  their 

wings . The  first  twelve  days  of  a  young  pigeon’s 

life,  it  feeds  exclusively  on  curds  that  form  in  the  craws 
of  both  the  male  and  female  parent-birds.  When  feed¬ 
ing  the  young,  the  old  bird  draws  head  and  neck  down 
close  to  the  body,  opens  mouth  wide,  then  the  young 
bird  sticks  its  beak  down  the  old  bird's  throat  and  eats 
curds  from  the  parent’s  craw. 

“This  curd  does  not  mix  with  the  old  bird’s  food, 
being  in  a  container  by  itself,  which  gives  way  after 
twelve  pr  thirteen  days  from  the  day  of  hatching  the 
young.  After  that  the  squabs  get  beechnuts  and  other 
seeds  mixed  with  the  curd.  Pigeons  nested  in  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  only  in  the  spring,  after  a  good  crop  of  beech¬ 
nuts  the  preceding  autumn. 

“The  writer’s  home  was  near  these  nestings.  From 
one-half  mile  to  four  miles  we  would  find  eight  or 
ten  colonies  of  nesting  birds,  and  we  have  been  in  six 
or  eight  that  were  farther  away.  We  have  tried  not 
to  enlarge  this  account  in  any  manner  for  no  one  knows 
what  a  pigeon  nesting  is  like,  until  he  has  visited  one. 
The  birds  build  nests  in  every  tree  that  stands  on  the 
territory  the  nesting  covers.  Undoubtedly  there  were 
three  times  as  many  nests  in  a  hemlock  tree  as  there 
were  in  a  hardwood  tree.  We  counted  fifty-seven 
nests  in  a  large  birch  tree.  In  a  hemlock  there  are  so 
many  more  places  for  nests ;  while  the  boughs  were  so 


C.  W.  DICKINSON 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


59 


thick,  it  was  not  possible  to  count  them  correctly. 
To  answer  the  question  of  what  became  of  them : 
There  were  millions  of  them  caught  in  nets  and  ship¬ 
ped  to  the  large  cities.  Still  there  were  millions  of  the 
birds  here  again  in  1886,  which  was  the  last  body  of 
them  that  visited  this  state.  A  few  small  flocks  passed 
through  this  locality  since  then.  We  saw  a  flock  of 
about  100  birds  in  September,  1905,  and  a  lone  pigeon 
in- 1906. 

“In  April  of  1886,  they  returned  for  the  express 
purpose  of  nesting.  The  beechnut  crop  of  1885  was 
very  large.  That  was  what  brought  them  here.  When 
food  was  real  plentiful  they  have  been  known  to  nest 
three  times  in  a  single  season :  First,  in  the  latter  part 
of  March ;  second,  in  the  early  part  of  May ;  and  third, 
about  June  10.  '  When  they  came  here  to  nest  they 
were  scattered  over  three  or  four  counties,  roosting 
wherever  night  overtook  them ;  but  for  a  night  or  two 
before  they  began  building  nests,  they  roosted  in  one 
large  body. 

“Another  sure  sign,  was  the  little  white  strings  that 
came  from  the  front  end  of  the  breast  and  connected 

with  the  craw . the  natural  feeders  that  form  the 

curds  for  the  young  to  feed  on.  These  two  sure  signs 
were  in  evidence,  in  1886.  The  fine  white  strings  had 
been  visible  for  three  days,  on  the  second  night  of  the 
big  roosting  on  the  west  branch  of  Pine  Creek,  in 
Potter  county;  when  these  birds  were  driven  out  of 


60 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Pennsylvania,  never  to  return.  Thirty  or  forty  men 


and  boys  went  into  the  roosting  with  guns . At  9 

p.  m.  they  began  shooting  into  the  treetops . as 


long  as  they  could  hear  a  bird  fly  among  the  branches. 
Then,  gathering  into  small  groups,  they  made  camp¬ 
fires  and  waited  for  daylight,  so  they  could  find  the 
dead  and  crippled  birds  under  the  trees. 

“That  was  the  death-blow  to  pigeons  in  Pennsylva¬ 
nia.  They  left  in  the  night,  which  was  clear,  with  a 

full  moon;  so  the  birds  could  see  where  to  go . in 

a  northerly  direction  across  the  state  of  New  York  and 
reach  the  big  forests  of  Canada,  the  course  they  always 
tcok,  when  leaving  Pennsylvania,  in  spring  or  early 
summer.  Being  driven  out,  on  the  eve  of  starting 
nest-building,  suggests  that  before  they  reached  their 
destination,  the  hens  dropped  their  eggs  on  the  way, 
or  before  nests  could  be  prepared  for  them.  There¬ 
fore  there  were  no  young  birds  to  eat  the  curds  which 
had  started  to  form,  and  would  keep  on  forming  until 
Nature’s  law  had  completed  her  work. 

“There  being  no  young  birds  to  eat  the  curds,  the 
craws  of  the  old  birds  would  fill  up  with  them  and  they 
would  starve  to  death ;  or  something  like  milk-fever 
would  ensue,  which  would  be  fatal  to  the  old  birds  that 
bad  been  about  to  nest.  There  were  always  '  many 
stray  birds  with  a  nesting  city,  either  too  young  to  nest, 
or  lost  birds  that  had  happened  to  meet  and  join  the 
main  body;  and  these  would  have  no  curds  in  their 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


61 


craws.  So,  we  can’t  believe  that  the  passenger  pigeon 
has  become  extinct.  But  they  will  never  nest  in  Penn¬ 
sylvania  again ;  for  there  is  not  enough  forest  left  for 
a  body  of  pigeons  to  nest  in.”  That  is  the  conclusion 
of  about  all  the  older  men  who  were  familiar  with 
pigeons. 


The  pigeons  did  not  all  leave  Pennsylvania,  as  above 
stated;  for  Mr.  Oscar  Huff,  of  White  Deer,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  states  that  they  had  a  nesting,  from  May  to  late 
in  June,  1886,  near  Blossburg,  on  the  timber  land  of 
Drake,  Cummings  &  Company ;  and  thousands  of 
squabs  were  killed  with  poles  in  the  little  trees  during 
the  bark-peeling  time  of  that  year. 


CHAPTER  XI 


Present  Day  Economics  and  Influence  As  Food 
Supply — Sketch  of  Indian  and 
Pioneer  Life 

SPECULATION  about  what  became  of  the  beech¬ 
nut  eating  passenger  pigeons  now  seems  to  be 
futile.  They  are  extinct,  because  the  food  they  ate, 
and  which  developed  their  chief  characteristics,  does 
not  grow  in  sufficient  quantities  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth,  in  any  locality,  to  sustain  a  colony  of  them 
through  a  breeding  period.  In  another  environment 
they  would  soon  adapt  themselves  to  new  conditions 
and  become  a  new  variety  of  pigeons.  They  were  so 
similar  to  the  pigeons  of  other  parts  of  the  world,  ex¬ 
cept  for  their  chief  food  requirements  and  their  meth¬ 
ods  of  life  to  avail  themselves  of  it,  to  the  greatest 
possible  extent ;  and  their  manner  of  reducing  damages 
from  their  enemies  to  the  minmum,  by  compact  multi¬ 
tudes  in  nesting  cities,  roosting  places  and  their  daily 
flights  in  search  of  food,  that  to  differentiate  between 
them  is  often  extremely  difficult.  Plumage  is  a  vary¬ 
ing  feature  of  many  birds  under  different  climates. 

Therefore,  to  reproduce  them  by  selective  breeding 
from  other  similar  pigeons  would  not  be  desirable, 
until  we  first  promote  beech  forests. 

Unless  our  forest  becomes  large  their  enemies  will 
destroy  them  in  a  very  short  time,  and  our  farmers  will 


62 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


63 


never  approve  of  pigeons  flying  at  large  and  devouring 
their  grain,  fruit  and  vegetables.  Domesticated  pi¬ 
geons,  confined  to  a  place  prepared  for  them,  is  the  only 
kind  that  can  be  profitably  maintained  in  most  of  our 
country,  as  it  is  now  occupied  by  fields  of  grain,  vine¬ 
yards,  orchards  and  gardens  which  are  much  more 
needed,  in  our  present  phase  of  development,  than  are 
the  flocks  that  primitive  men  cherished.  When  only  a 
few  dozen  families  occupied  space  as  large  as  a  county, 
there  was  room  for  men,  animals  and  birds.  The 
strong  then  fed  upon  the  weaker  which  perished  from 
the  world,  making  room  for  more  men  and  their  agri¬ 
culture  which  now  feeds  them. 

Primitive  man  found  the  forest  adapted  for  his 
home.  The  trees  bore  fruit  that  nourished  him,  or  that 
fed  the  birds  and  the  animals  which  he  slew  for  his 
food  and  raiment.  They  spread  over  the  vast  domain, 
until  they  became  numerous.  Then  they  developed 
arts  by  which  many  could  exist,  where  there  had  pre¬ 
viously  been  few,  and  civilized  society  began  its  de¬ 
velopment.  Many  former  forms  became  obsolete  in  the 
new  situations  they  created.  Strong  animals  became  the 
burden  bearers  and  certain  birds  were  tamed  to  fur¬ 
nish  food  for  a  more  complex  society.  Tamed  ani¬ 
mals  provided  food  and  rairrient.  Those  that  could  not 
be  made  efficient  helpers  soon  began  to  fade  away  and 
become  extinct.  The  soil  was  utilized  for  the  vegeta¬ 
bles  and  grain  they  needed  and  the  trees  were  de¬ 
stroyed  to  make  room  for  men.  Now  men  are  pro¬ 
gressing  in  the  epoch  of  tree  cultivation  and  planting. 


64 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


to  cause  them  to  produce  the  food  and  materials  they 
desire,  in  larger  supply  than  during  the  former  phases 
of  life. 

To  the  isolated  Indians  and  our  pioneers  the  pas¬ 
senger  pigeons,  during  early  spring  and  summer,  when 
other  wild  game  was  thin  in  flesh  and  unpalatable,  came 
as  a  bountiful  source  of  food,  in  most  palatable  form, 
and  supplied  them  with  all  the  meat  and  fat  they  de¬ 
sired.  That  made  comparative  safety  for  all  other 
birds  and  animals,  so  far  as  their  food  was  concerned, 
and  allowed  six  months  of  time  for  rearing  their  young. 
That  respite  has  preserved  many  varieties  of  them,  this 
last  century,  from  utter  extinction.  The  pigeon  proved 
to  be  a  benefactor  to  them,  as  well  as  to  men. 

From  the  era,  when  pigeons  came  to  relieve  the 
annual  springtime  shortage  of  food,  we  have  advanced 
to  the  ability  of  transporting  the  food  that  we  require 
by  mechanical  force ;  so  men  do  not  need  the  pigeons 
as  much  as  they  did.  They  have  literally  donated  their 
bodies  and  their  existence  for  the  benefit  of  men,  birds 
and  beasts  of  the  forests.  They  were  martyrs  to  our 
progress,  as  well  as  to  the  lives  of  a  vast  multitude  of 
people. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  philosopher  and  the  poets 
of  a  decaying  race  of  Red* Men,  in  America,  were  con¬ 
strained  to  endow  the  passenger  pigeons  with  almost 
supernatural  attributes,  in  their  guardianship  of  the 
wandering  tribes  that  had  been  lost  in  the  primeval 
wilderness,  since  the  creation  of  the  world ;  nor  that 
their  hearts  burst  with  sorrow  when  they  beheld  the 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


65 


birds  persecuted  and  slaughtered,  by  inhuman  men  of 
the  white  race,  to  make  food  upon  which  to  fatten  vast 
herds  of  hogs,  and  even  to  extract  the  fat  from  the 
dead  bodies  of  the  squabs,  for  grease  with  which  to 
make  soap — a  substance  which  the  Indians  scarcely  had 
any  appreciation  of.  From  the  venerable  books,  the 
Zend-Avesta,  we  may  learn  of  the  progress  of  the 
early  people  of  Iran.  Zoroaster,  the  Persian  sage,  un¬ 
folded  the  process,  step  by  step,  upon  the  ladder,  as 
they  climbed  to  agriculture  from  the  abyss  they  had 
been  in,  as  nomadic  tribes ;  and,  in  their  metaphysics, 
he  portrayed  the  beneficence  of  the  celestial  izeds  of 
Hormuzd  that  were  prototypes  of  our  guardian  angels. 
In  like  manner  the  Greek  philosophers*  portrayed  the- 
blessings,  derived  from'  Pallas  Athene,  in  their  myth¬ 
ology  of  metamorphism.  The  Red  Men  had  their 
sacred  pigeons^ 

The  American  Red  Men  held  the  pigeon  as  the 
messenger  of  hope,  when  famine  held  them  in  a  grip, 
as  malignant  as  that  of  Hobomock,  their  enemy,  who 
balked  them  in  their  enterprises  upon  earth  and  plan¬ 
ned  confusion  upon  the  long  trail  to  the  Happy  Hunt¬ 
ing  Ground,  when  the  Great  Spirit  called  them  from 
their  tribulations,  in  life  upon  earth,  to  the  enjoyment 
of  their  ideal  conditions.  The  sturdy  pioneers  of  this 
country  subdued  the  wilderness,  with  privations  almost 
inconceivable  at  this  day.  They  were  attacked  by  wild 
animals  in  search  of  food  and  by  the  Indians  who  dis¬ 
approved  of  their  methods ;  many  died  from  the  rigors 
of  the  climate;  for  clothing  they  wore  the  skins  of 


66 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


beasts;  for  food,  at  times  they  were  compelled  to  mix 
the  bark  of  trees  with  their  corn  meal,  so  it  would 
hold  out  longer,  and  at  times  they  dug  up  the  potatoes 
they  had  planted — so  near  they  were  to  starvation — 
and  then  the  pigeons  came !  Food  at  once  was  most 
plentiful.  Their  strength  was  renewed,  as  by  a  mir¬ 
acle  ;  hope  revived  in  their  hearts ;  their  courage  blazed 
high;  they  walked  a  hundred  miles,  joyously,  to  the 
nearest  grist  mill  to  have  their  handful  of  corn  ground, 
and  hustled  home#  again,  so  their  wives  and  their  chil¬ 
dren  might  have  bread  to  eat  with  their  rations  of  meat 
and  fish. 

Many  of  them  did  their  own  grinding  by  means  of 
the  hollowed  out  stump  of  a  hardwood  tree  and  a  pes¬ 
tle  of  stone,  or  of  seasoned  wood.  But  they  perse¬ 
vered,  and  soon,  thriving  villages  dotted  the  forests ;  the 
hum  of  their  industry  and  the  shouts  of  woodsmen  and 
raftsmen  told  of  the  business  their  energy  >vas  creating 
in  the  forests — a  business  that  placed  Pennsylvania,  for 
a  while,  at  the  head  of  the  great  lumber  producing 
states  of  the  world.  Then  declining  forest  areas 
forced  back  our  record  step  by  step,  to  second ;  to  third  ; 
then  to  fourth  place  in  production  of  lumber.  The 
white  pine  went  first;  then  the  hemlock;  and  later,  the 
various  hardwoods  have  become  of  moderate  import¬ 
ance^  Now  we  import  much  of  the  forest  material  we 
need  from  year  to  year.  Indians  have  become  citizens  ; 
turned  farmers,  and  are  as  tame  as  their  poultry. 


C.  W.  DICKINSON 
From  a  War-Time  Daguerreotype 


CHAPTER  XII 


Some  Information  About  Their  Characteristics, 
Classification  and  Peculiarities — Ornithology 

THE  pigeon  tribe,  comprising  the  large  order  of  Co- 
lumbae,  contains  many  beautiful  and  interesting 
birds,  various  families  being  styled  doves  in  our  no¬ 
menclature  of  them  and  in  our  every-day  language. 
They  are  all  distinguished  from  poultry  and  gallina¬ 
ceous  birds  in  general,  by  the  form  of  the  bill,  which  is 
arched  towards  the  tip,  with  a  convex  swelling  at  the 
base,  caused  by  a  gristly  plate  covering  the  nasal  cavi¬ 
ties,  which  is  curiously  developed  in  some  species.  To 
enable  the  parent  birds  to  feed  their  young,  the  gullet 
swells  into  a  double  crop,  furnished  with  glands,  en¬ 
larged  during  their  brooding  season,  which  mingle  their 
secretions  of  certain  acids  with  the  food,  to  soften  it 
into  an  emulsion,  similar  to  the  milk  of  mammals ;  or 
thick  cream  combined  with  the  casein,  in  consolidated 
form,  like  the  curds  in  making  cheese  from  milk,  so 
when  the  birds  throw  up  the  food  after  their  fashion, 
to  feed  their  young,  the  whole  mass  in  the  curd  pouch 
has  a  soft,  pulpy  consistence,  suitable  to  the  delicate 
digestive  powers  of  the  tender  young  birds,  and  their 
rapid  growth  is  astonishing. 

The  emulsion  ducts  of  passenger  pigeons,  at  breed¬ 
ing  season,  expanded  into  visible  white  strings  from 
their  breast  to  the  curd  pouch,  outside  of  their  feath- 


67 


68 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


ers,  hanging  like  the  bridle  reins  of  a  horse  in  motion, 
when  under  saddle,  and  held  by  an  experienced  rider. 
By  this  mark  the  hunters  knew  a  brooding  bird  at  a 
glance,  even  in  flight,  when  the  wild  pigeons  had  re¬ 
turned  and  assembled  at  their  Resting  colony,  before 
nest  building  began  and  until  the  squabs  had  been 
abandoned  to  hunt  their  own  food.  Then  the  ducts 
shrank  beneath  the  feathers,  until  they  became  active 
for  another  brooding  period.  They  have  been  classi¬ 
fied  as  genus  of  Ectopistes,  moving  from  place,  and 
sometimes  the  term  Migratorius  is  added  for  emphasis. 
The  bill  had  longitudinal  nostrils  in  the  rtiiddle  of  it. 
The  wings  were  long  and  pointed;  first  and  second 
quills  longest.  The  tail  was  long;  four  central  feath¬ 
ers  sharp.  Tarsi  were  feathered  to  knees.  They 
were  peculiar  to  North  America,  in  habitat. 

The  birds  of  North  America  are  catalogued  in 
about  925  species  and  subspecies.  Many  exten¬ 
sive  works  on  them  show  their  histories  as  only 
the  science  of  ornithology  can  do.  However, 
association  with  the  birds  endows  the  subject  with 
life  and  interest,  so  that  we  may  visualize  and  under¬ 
stand  it  better.  In  their  habits,  the  pigeons  greatly 
resemble  each  other;  mostly  haunting  trees  and,  more 
or  less,  they  are  carpophagous,  or  fruit  eaters  at  the 
season  when  it  is  available;  some  however,  prefer  the 
soil,  as  hunting-ground  for  insects,  and  for  the  succu¬ 
lent  roots  and  leaves  they  are  fond  of ;  but  generally, 
the  family  likeness  is  strong  enough  for  even  a  novice 
in  ornithology  to  know  a  pigeon  when  he  sees  one,  ex- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


69 


cept  in  one  or  two  varieties  that  are  more  puzzling, 
even  to  trained  observers. 

Their  powers  of  wing  are  usually  great,  the  pigeon 
being  proverbially  swift  and  enduring.  They  are 
found  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  globe,  from  the  arctic 
circle  to  the  antarctic,  where  vegetation  supplies  food 
for  them  to  feed  upon.  In  the  warmer  regions  they 
are  most  plentiful.  In  this  country  their  colors  are 
soft  and  pleasing,  their  necks  glowing  with  a  changeful 
beauty,  but  not  particularly  striking  for  depth  or  bril¬ 
liancy;  while  in  the  tropics  the  pigeons  are  among  the 
most  magnificent  of  the  feathered  tribes,  their  plumage 
being  imbued  with  the  richest  colors,  and  often  assum¬ 
ing  elegant  forms. 

For  distributing  the  seeds,  upon  which  they  sub¬ 
sist,  the  pigeons  are  usually  useful,  and  of  great  bene¬ 
fit.  For  utility  the  Fruit  Pigeons  of  Oeeanica  are  a 
good  example.  In  Pellew  and  the  neighboring  islands 
it  is  a  forest-loving  bird,  taking  up  its  residence  in  the 
woods,  where  it  finds  abundance  of  food.  The  favorite 
diet  is  the  soft  covering  of  the  nutmeg,  known  as 
“Mace,”  and  the  flavor  which  this  aromatic  food  im¬ 
parts  to  the  flesh  is  so  peculiarly  delicate  that  the 
pigeons  are  in  great  request  for  the  table,  and  are  shot 
in  large  numbers.  During  the  nutmeg  season  food  is 
so  abundant  that  the  pigeons  become  so  extremely 
plump,  that  when  they  are  shot  and  fall  to  the  ground 
they  often  burst  asunder. 

As  an  agency  for  disseminating,  far  and  wide,  the 
seeds  of  the  remarkable  nutmeg  tree  pigeons  are  most 


70 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


useful.  Being  of  large  appetite  they  swallow  the  nut¬ 
meg  together  with  the  mace,  but  only  the  mace  is  subject 
to  digestion,  the  nutmeg  passing  through  the  system 
with  reproductive  powers  uninjured;  they  are  also  im¬ 
proved  by  the  sojourn  in  the  pigeon’s  body,  which 
seems  necessary  to  cause  them  to  grow,  for  they  must 
have  chemical  treatment,  when  planted  by  human 
hands,  before  they  will  take  root  from  the  seeds.  In 
color  this  bird  is  as  follows :  The  forehead,  cheeks 
and  throat  are  grayish-white,  and  the  rest  of  the  head 
and  the  back  of  the  neck  are  gray  with  a  slaty-blue 
wash.  The  back  and  upper  portions  of  the  body  are 
light  metallic  green.  The  lower  part  of  the  throat  and 
the  breast  are  rusty  gray ;  the  thighs  and  abdomen  are 
deep  brownish-red.  The  under  surface  of  the  tail  is 
green  with  a  reddish  gloss.  The  adult  bird  is  fifteen 
inches  long. 

In  a  similar  manner,  passenger  pigeons  dissemin¬ 
ated  the  seeds  of  the  black  cherry  tree  and  many  other 
wild  fruits  by  dropping  the  pits  of  each  variety, 
throughout  the  forests  in  this  country,  wherever  they 
sojourneyed  in  the  season  for  each;  and  also  cran¬ 
berries  and  the  other  native  wild  fruits.  The  beech- 
tree  was  brought  to  different  localities  through  their 
agency. 

On  the  west  slope  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  the 
Band-tailed  Pigeons,  ( Columbia  fasciata),  were  num¬ 
erous,  and  they  are  a  handsome  species,  about  the  size 
of  domestic  pigeons,  with  similar  habits.  Their  colors 
are  ash  above,  inclining  to  olive  tints  on  the  back,  with 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


71 


a  line  bluish  cast  on  the  rump ;  and  a  narrow  half¬ 
collar  of  white  across  the  supper  part  of  the  neck. 
They  are  about  fifteen  inches  long. 

All  pigeons  have  a  wonderful  power  of  finding  their 
homes,  even  if  taken  to  great  distance  from  them. 
Their  mode  of  finding  their  domiciles  has  been  a  sub¬ 
ject  of  animated  discussions,  '‘since  the  memory  of 
man  runneth  not  contrary  thereto.”  One  party  argu¬ 
ing  that  it  is  an  instinctive  operation ;  another  that  it 
is  entirely  by  sight ;  and  a  third,  that  it  is  by  a  com¬ 
bination  of  the  two,  with  a  very  sensitive  recognition 
or  the  waves  of  electricity  through  the  atmosphere, 
that  each  bird  uses  in  a  peculiar  way,  indicating  to  the 
bird  its  direction  from  home,  and  the  way  to  travel, 
until  sight  avails  to  fix  the  route.  To  an  observer  of 
a  flock  of  young  passenger  pigeons,  a  few  days  after 
the  old  birds  had  all  departed  to  new  nestlings  on 
Sydenham  lakes,  in  Ontario,  it  was  mighty  interest¬ 
ing  to  find  the  young  birds  at  Watertown,  New  York, 
the  next  day ;  then  near  Bay  of  Quinte  the  second  day, 
and  all  of  them  in  the  woods  of  Sydenham  valley  the 
third  day.  Telepathy  or  intuition  is  certainly  sug¬ 
gested. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


Other  American  Varieties  Also  Noticed — Develop¬ 
ment  from  Egg  Observed  and  Given  a 
Careful  Analysis 

IN  addition  to  a  great  variety  of  doves  and  the  two  va¬ 
rieties  of  northern  pigeons,  Ectopistes  and  Fasciata, 
there  are  various  other  important  pigeons,  native  in 
North  America  and  the  West  India  Islands,  that  may 
be  briefly  noticed,  in  glancing  around  the  Carribean 
environment  and  other  places  that  are  familiar  to  us. 
The  White-Headed  Pigeon  (Columbia  cucocephala), 
is  found  at  Key  West,  Florida,  in  secluded  places,  as 
it  is  a  shy  bird,  arriving  about  April  20th.  It  is  of  two 
7  classes  that  are  plenty  in  Honduras  and  Jamaica  and 
called  Mangrove  Baldpate  and  Mountain  Baldpate, 
respectively,  according  to  the  chief  habitat  of  each 
class.  There  is  demand  for  the  delicious  squabs. 
They  are  readily  domesticated,  but  have  a  fondness  for 
emancipation.  They  are  seldom  taken  in  mainland 
interiors,  but  they  love  the  islands  near  the  coasts.  It 
is  smaller  than  the  passenger  pigeon ;  but  is  plump  and 
nearly  as  heavy;  color,  dark  slate-blue;  from  bill  to 
nape  pure  white;  dark  maroon-purple  spot  on  the  oc¬ 
ciput,  and  below  it  a  brassy-green  cape,  covering  nape, 
each  feather  bordered  externally  with  velvety  black ; 
the  bill  is  dark  purple,  with  a  light  blue  tip ;  iris,  white ; 
and  the  legs,  a  deep  lake-red. 


72 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


73 


The  Blue-Headed  Pigeon  (Starnoenas  cyanocep- 
hala)  is  another  West  Indian  bird  that  visits  Key  West. 
It  is  somewhat  like  a  quail  in  appearance  and  in  some 
of  its  habits,  with  a  blue  bill  and  carmine  feet.  It  is 
about  twelve  inches  in  length.  There  are  doves  of 
approximately  the  same  size,  and  some  are  larger. 
The  Red-bill,  the  White  wing  in  Mexico,  Zenaida  at 
Florida  Keys  and  in  the  Antilles,  the  Zenaidura  in  the 
Carolinas,  Louisiana  and  California.  It  visits  New 
England  in  summer  and  may  be  seen  in  all  the  states, 
occasionally,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  in  its 
migratory  flights,  having  a  variety  of  local  names  and 
somewhat  varying  plumage ;  it  is  Ortolan  in  Louisiana ; 
Mourning  Dove,  or  Common  Dove,  in  other  states, 
where  its  rapid  flight  and  whistling  wings  are  known 
to  the  country  school  children  at  the  roadsides,  and  in 
the  silent  barren.  In  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  states,  as 
far  north  as  Carolina,  the  tiny  Ground  Dove  is 
known  to  everyone;  and  the  Scaly  Dove  (Scardafella 
Inca)  may  be  seen  along  the  Rio  Grande;  in  Arizona 
and  southwards  to  Guatemala,  in  two  species,  one  of 
which  may  also  be  seen  in  South  America. 

There  are  many  more  individual  illustrations  of  the 
varying  orders  to  which  the  many  pigeon  tribes  be¬ 
long,  but  those  already  described  are  sufficient  for  our 
purpose,  at  the  present  time.  Domesticated  pigeons 
are  found  to  be  sufficiently  parallel  with  the  native 
wild  species  of  America  to  pursue  our  general  inves¬ 
tigations  upon;  so  we  take  a  pigeon  egg,  weighing 


74 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


about  half  an  ounce,  with  rounded  ends  similar,  instead 
of  one  end  pointed,  as  in  the  case  of  domestic  fowls; 
and  the  shell  is  white.  Birds  are  classed  as  verte¬ 
brates,  but  do  not  suckle  their  young,  nourishing  them, 
as  explained  in  earlier  chapters,  as  regards  pigeons, 
with  partially  macerated  food  from  the  pouch  of  either 
parent  bird,  acted  upon  by  its  own  organs  of  digestion  ; 
and  which  they  are  able  to  disgorge  at  will,  similar 
to  ruminating  quadrupeds.  The  young  are  produced 
in  an  animated  state,  from  the  eggs,  by  the  effects  of 
constant  warmth,  as  the  parent  pigeons  sit  alternately 
upon  the  nest. 

When  the  egg  is  first  produce  \  the  future  squab 
is  indicated  by  a  little  germ-spot,  barely  the  size  of  a 
single  oat-grain  with  hull  and  shuck  removed ;  without 
power  of  breathing  atmospheric  air  and  receiving  nour¬ 
ishment  into  its  mouth,  until  the  incubating  period  has 
elapsed.  To  watch  the  development  in  the  egg  is  an 
interesting  experiment  and  full  of  suggestive  instruc¬ 
tion.  The  structure  is  so  balanced,  that  to  view  the 
little  germ-spot  it  is  only  necessary  to  lay  the  egg  on 
its  side  and  remove  a  portion  of  the  shell,  when  the 
germ  will  be  seen  lying  immediately  under  the  aper¬ 
ture.  In  whatever  way  the  egg  may  be  turned,  the 
germ-spot  presents  itself  at  the  highest  point,  provided 
the  egg  be  laid  on  its  side,  and  that  the  living  prin¬ 
ciple  has  not  been  extinguished.  As  growth  proceeds, 
manipulation  becomes  easier,  but  it  is  best  to  immerse 
the  egg  in  water,  before  removing  the  shell,  and  to 
keep  it  submerged  during  the  examination. 


JOHN  H.  CHATHAM 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


75 


It  is  wonderful  to  see  a  living  being  evolved  from 
apparently  lifeless  substances  contained  in  an  egg.  The 
being  grows  under  our  gaze,  and  we  arise  from  the 
wondrous  spectacle  with  a  feeling  that  we  have  been 
present  at  an  act  of  creation.  When  an  egg  is  opened 
we  find  a  mass  that  is  usually  denominated  as  “white” 
and  “yolk”;  but  examined  more  closely,  the  contents 
are  found  elaborately  disposed,  so  as  to  meet  the  ob¬ 
ject  for  which  the  egg  is  formed.  Within  the  shell 
lies  a  membrane,  composed  of  two  layers,  pressed 
closely  together  for  the  greater  portion  of  its  extent, 
but  separated  at  the  wider  end  of  the  egg,  containing 
a  supply  of  air  to  satisfy  the  squab’s  requirements. 
This  space  increases  as  the  squab  develops.  Within 
this  membrane  lies  the  “white”  in  two  distinct  layers, 
outer  part  thin  and  fluid,  while  under  it  lies  a  thick, 
tenacious,  transparent  layer.  Within  the  white  lies 
the  yolk,  surrounded  by  a  slight  membrane,  guarding 
it  from  the  white.  The  yolk  is  anchored  by  two  liga¬ 
ments  fastened  to  its  membrane.  Upon  the  yolk,  and 
immediately  under  the  membrane,  lies  the  little  germ 
which  in  the  brief  space  of  two  weeks  of  incubation 
will  develop  into  a  squab  bird. 

After  a  few  hours  of  warmth,  the  first  idea  of  life  • 
is  seen  in  a  little  whitish  streak,  barely  a  tenth  of  an 
inch  long,  wider  at  one  end,  lying  across  the  egg. 
This  streak  enlarges  and  forms  a  groove  between  two 
little  ridges,  in  which  a  delicate  thread  appears,  a  few 
hours  later,  the  first  indication  of  a  spinal  cord.  Pres¬ 
ently  a  number  of  the  tiniest  square,  white  plates  are 


76  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


seen  on  each  side  of  the  thread,  the  commencement  of 
the  vertebrae.  The  parts  seem  to  be  a  crystallization 
from  the  substances  of  the  egg.  By  the  end  of  the 
first  day  the  germ  curves,  looking  like  a  tiny  maggot 
as  it  lies  on  the  edge  of  the  yolk.  The  little  heart  is 
perceptible,  the  second  day ;  the  arteries  and  veins  sup¬ 
plied  with  blood,  are  perceived  the  third  day.  So  the 
various  organs  appear,  one  after  another,  as  the  body 
is  built  up;  the  feathers  being  the  last,  on  the  twelfth 
day,  and  the  squab  pierces  the  air-sack,  with  its  beak, 
at  the  blunter  end  of  the  egg;  and  hammers  on  the 
shell  with  its  horn-tipped  beak. 

The  young  bird  has  been  nourished  by  the  yolk, 
which  is  connected  with  its  abdomen,  and  which  is 
separated  soon  after  the  shell  is  broken,  enabling  the 
squab  to  respire  freely.  The  shell  is  pecked  in  a  cir¬ 
cle,  cutting  for  itself  a  trap-door,  which  often  remains 
suspended  by  a  hinge  of  uncut  lining  membrane, 
through  which  the  squab  emerges  on  the  fourteenth 
or  fifteen  day  after  the  incubation  began,  and  the 
horny  excrescence  at  the  tip  of  its  bill  soon  drops  off, 
as  the  young  bird  no  longer  needs  a  chisel  to  cut 
through  so  hard  a  substance  as  an  egg  shell;  and  na¬ 
ture  abhors  a  superfluity  in  all  of  her  craftsmanship. 
The  young  bird  remains  in  the  nest,  nourished  by  the 
parents,  for  about  two  weeks,  growing  a  coat  of  feath¬ 
ers  upon  its  naked  body,  and  quills  for  wings  and  tail, 
the  sails  and  rudder  by  which  it  then  parachutes  from 
the  high  branch  of  the  home  nest-tree,  in  a  slanting 
route,  as  it  flutters  to  the  ground  and  begins  its  life 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


77 


work  of  finding  its  own  food  and  learning  how  to  fly, 
which  requires  only  a  few  days  of  practice,  when  the 
squab  hastens  to  rejoin  its  kindred,  in  the  distant  home 
they  have  selected  and  migrated  to,  soon  after  their 
young  fluttered  from  the  nests  to  begin  active  life  in  a1 
wide  world,  where  their  natural  enemies  sought  their 
destruction,  making  them  hustle. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


Some  Adaptable  Foreign  Varieties — Structure  and 
Mode  of  Flight — Process  of  Netting 
the  Adult  Birds 

WE  now  shall  sketch  briefly  some  foreign  varieties 
of  pigeons  that  have  been,  more  or  less,  domesti¬ 
cated  and  some  of  them  changed  by  the  process  of  selec¬ 
tive  breeding  and  admixture  of  the  original  stocks,  thus 
creating  strains  that  seem  adapted  to  the  desires  of 
fanciers  and  those  who  consider  utility  for  special 
purposes.  These  original  species  are  considered  adapt¬ 
able  varieties,  as  well  as  some  American  pigeons.  The 
Stock-Dove,  (Columba  oenas),  is  abput  fourteen 
inches  long  and  excellent  for  food.  It  makes  its  nests 
in  stocks  and  stumps  of  trees  and  is  common  in  many 
parts  of  the  eastern  hemisphere,  although  a  European 
bird.  The  head,  neck,  back  and  wing  coverts  are 
bluish-gray;  chin  and  sides  of  the  neck  being  glossed 
with  green,  and  the  breast  is  purplish-red;  the  throat 
is  wine-color,  giving  this  bird  the  specific  name 
“oenas;”  the  under  surface  is  gray,  of  several  tones, 
with  white  outer  webs ;  the  beak  is  deep  orange,  eyes 
are  scarlet  and  the  legs  and  toes  are  red. 

The  Wood-Pigeon,  (Columba  palum'bus),  is  about 
seventeen  inches  long  and  is  known  by  a  variety  of 
names  in  Europe,  such  as  Cushat,  Quist,  Wood-guest 
and  also  Ring-dove,  owing  to  feathers  of  its  neck,  tip- 


78 


79 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


ped  with  white,  forming  portions  of  rings  set  obliquely 
on  the  side  of  the  neck.  The  head,  chin  and  part  of 
the  neck  are  blue-gray ;  the  remainder  of  the  neck  and 
the  breast  are  purple-red ;  the  upper  parts  of  the  body 
are  slate-gray,  with  wings  a  darkened  hue,  and  pri¬ 
mary  quill  feathers  have  black  shafts,  outer  edges  bor¬ 
dered  with  white;  the  under  surface  of  the  body  is 
several  shades  of  gray ;  the  beak,  orange,  and  eyes  are 
topaz-yellow;  base  of  beak  is  nearly  white.  It  is  one 
of  the  commonest  of  European  birds,  breeding  in  al¬ 
most  every  copse  of  trees  and  inhabiting  the  forest 
grounds  in  great  abundance.  They  are  held  in  great 
estimation  for  the  table,  especially  the  squabs  just  be¬ 
fore  they  are  able  to  fly.  They  are  caught  by  boys 
who  tie  a  string  about  their  legs,  fastening  them  to  the 
branches  while  young,  so  they  will  be  there  in  their 
nests  when  wanted. 

Domestic  pigeons  are  chiefly  modifications  of  the 
Blue  Rock-Pigeon,  (Columba'  livia),  and  if  permitted 
to  mix  freely  display  a  tendency  to  revert, to  the  orig¬ 
inal  type  of  rock-dwellers,  with  simple  plumage  and 
black  bars  across  the  wings.  The  adult  bird  is  about 
a  foot  in  length.  It  is  common  over  most  of  Europe, 
Northern  Africa,  and  has  even  been  found  in  Japan. 
The  pouter,  the  jacobin,  trumpeter  and  the  fantail  are 
all  developed  from  this  original  race-stock  by  careful 
management  and  selective  breeding,  we  have  been  told 
by  fanciers.  The  homing  instinct  has  been  developed 
for  ages,  and  before  the  electric  telegraph  was  utilized 
the  carrier  pigeon  carried  messages  in  many  parts  of 


80 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


the  world.  When  released,  far  from  home,  they  rise 
to  a  great  height,  hover  about  for  awhile  in  an  un¬ 
decided  manner,  and  then  they  are  off  like  the  flight 
of  an  arrow  on  the  return  trip. 

The  pigeons  have  their  larger  bones  hollow,  instead 
of  solid  or  filled  with  marrow,  like  animals,  being  of  a 
lighter  make,  combining  great  strength  and  surface 
for  muscle  leverage  with  least  weight.  These  hollow 
bones  communicate  with  airsacs  which  open  in  to  the 
lungs,  so  the  hot,  rarified  air  may  be  forced  from  the 
lungs  into  the  hollow  bones,  thus  effecting  great  buoy¬ 
ancy  for  their  bodies  as  more  atmospheric  air  is 
consumed  in  respiration,  the  dioxide  being  exhaled, 
and  flight  becomes  more  rapid  and  easier  as  they  pro¬ 
ceed  into  a  long  flight.  The  hollow  quills,  perhaps, 
do  a  like  service,  as  the  bones,  in  assisting  buoyancy  in 
proportion  to  the  exertion  in  the  air,  making  the  in¬ 
halations  more  abundant,  oxidization  rapid,  and  re¬ 
leasing  the  expanding  gasses  to  charge  the  cavities, 
while  carbonic  acid  gas,  dioxide,  is  exhaled,  to  fall 
below,  being  heavier  than  atmosphere. 

The  passenger  pigeons  were  provided  with  a  breast¬ 
bone  that  was  large  and  furnished  with  a  deep  keel, 
affording  attachment  for  muscles  of  enormous  size, 
which  were  devoted  to  drawing  the  wings  forcibly 
downwards,  in  lifting  strokes,  while  the  conformation 
of  the  wings,  to  give  the  slight  rotary  action,  so  that 
the  feathers  beat  the  air  with  their  flat  sides,  gave  pro¬ 
gress  and  speed,  but  presented  their  sharp  edges  as 
they  returned  for  another  stroke,  like  an  oarsman 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


81 


“feathering”  the  'blade  of  his  oar  in  throwing  it  back 
for  another  stroke.  Their  power  of  sight  was  re¬ 
markable,  being  adapted  for  near  or  distant  objects, 
like  many  other  birds,  so  that  when  passing  a  freshly 
sown  field,  like  a'  streak  in  the  air,  they  would  swoop 
down,  pick  up  all  the  grain  in  sight  in  a  few  moments, 
and  go  forward  again,  like  a  raging  tempest,  in  haste 
to  overtake  their  fellow  flocks  that  had  passed  too  far 
to  right  or  left  to  observe  the  grain  in  the  field,  or  they 
had  been  steering  for  another  prize. 

In  starting  upon  a  journey  from  perches  in  the 
tall  trees,  passenger  pigeons,  at  first,  dipped  slightly 
toward  the  earth  and  tobogganed  down  the  decline 
with  increasing  velocity,  in  the  general  direction  they 
wished  to  go,  and  skimmed  along  the  valley,  between 
the  hills.  Then  they  began  to  rise  above  the  hills  and 
when  high  in  the  air  they  trimmed  their  course  by  curv¬ 
ing  toward  the  exact  place  they  sought,  accelerating  the 
pace  until  a  speed  of  nearly  a  hundred  miles  an  hour 
was  attained,  and  maintained  to  the  end  of  their  trip, 
when  they  circled  in  a  wide,  declining  plane  and  gently 
alighted  upon  the  ground,  with  a  roaring  of  wings  like 
a  fearful  tempest,  or  sought  the  branches  of  trees  be¬ 
yond,  in  a  graceful  upward  sweep  that  absorbed  much 
of  the  momentum  they  had  attained. 

To  get  the  old  pigeons  as  they  passed  along  the 
valleys  during  the  first  dozen  miles  of  their  trips  to 
their  feeding  grounds,  the  men  rented  cleared  places 
upon  the  sandy  flats  along  the  rivers,  removed  the  sod 
of  a  square  rod,  built  a  tepee  of  boughs  at  one  side  to 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


82 


form  the  ambush  of  two  men,  set  their  net  at  one  edge 
of  the  bared  ground,  tied  “stool-pigeons”  to  stakes  in 
the  ground,  scattered  corn  and  buckwheat  around  them 
to  complete  the  “bed”  that  was  ready  for  victims,  and 
retired  to  the  shade  of  their  ambush  to  await  the  flocks 
of  the  morning  flight.  The  net  was  fastened  at  one 
square  side  to  the  ground  and  had  weights  of  lead  at¬ 
tached  to  the  other  three  sides,  with  springs  to  throw 
it  over  the  bed,  whenever  the  controlling  ropes,  held 
by  the  men,  should  be  given  quick  pulls,  as, the  pigeons 
that  alighted  were  picking  up  the  grain. 

The  stool-pigeons  were  captured  wild  pigeons,  with 
eyelids  sewn  together,  so  they  were  blind  for  the  time 
being,  tied  with  strings  two  or  three  yards  long,  so 
they  could  fly  up  a  little  and  drop  down  again  upon 
the  bed  when  they  heard  the  flocks  above  their  heads, 
thus  attracting  the  passing  pigeons  to  alight  and  par¬ 
take  of  the  grain  around  them,  which  they  also  saw 
and  desired.  A  few  hundred  would  alight  and  crowd 
together  on  the  bed*  as  they  hastily  picked  up  the  ker¬ 
nels  of  corn  and  then  the  smaller  buckwheat,  too  ab¬ 
sorbed  to  notice  the  net  as  it  was  sprung  over  them. 
Their  heads,  raised  through  the  meshes  of  the  net, 
were  then  pinched  between  thumb  and  finger  or 
crushed  by  the  teeth  of  the  men. 


From  the  Record  and  Star,  Watsontown,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  July  13,  1017,  Lew  C.  Fosnot,  the  editor,  in 
describing  a  driving  trip  through  the  Pennsylvania 
mountains  in  which  he  had  recently  participated,  says : 


o  o 
c 


5  £ 


ol.  Henry  W.  Shoemaker 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


83 


“Brush  Valley  furnished  a  diversion  to  our  party  in 
the  shape  of  a  wild-pigeon  story  that  in  spite  of  the 
earnestness  and  apparent  lack  of  incentive  to  prevar¬ 
icate  or  exaggerate  on  the  part  of  our  informant,  is 
to  be  accepted  with  mental  reservation.  Mr.  Snook,  a 
farmer  residing  near  the  Stover  home,  reports  that  last 
fall — in  buckwheat  time — he  was  visited  by  a  flock  of 
at  least  five  hundred  wild  pigeons,  and  that  the  pre¬ 
vious  spring  a  flock  of  about  half  that  size  were  seen 
on  his  place.  In  the  face  of  the  fact  that  naturalists 
and  wild  bird  lovers  have  been  offering  big  rewards 
for  even  a  single  pair  of  wild  pigeons,  and  that  the 
species  have  long  been  regarded  as  extinct,  this  story 
seems  highly  improbable.  Notwithstanding  the  re¬ 
moteness  of  the  section  of  alleged  visitation,  it  is  too 
important  an  occurrence  not  to  have  been  reported  or 
discovered  by  interested  persons.  The  further  fact 
that  none  of  Mr.  Snook’s  neighbors  saw  the  birds, 
which  in  such  numbers  should  have  been  noticed 
throughout  the  entire  valley,  puts  a  climax  to  the 
doubts  of  the  veracity  of  the  story,  forcing  the  con¬ 
clusion  that  it  was  only  a  dream. 


(Brush  Valley,  Centre  County,  is  the  wildest  sec¬ 
tion  of  the  central  part  of  Pennsylvania,  lumbered  over 
many  years  ago,  and  is  nicely  grown  up  with  a  new 
forest.  William  Snook  avers  that  he  saw  the  wild 
pigeons  in  May  and  September,  1916.) 


CHAPTER  XV 


Their  Prehistoric  Environment — Results  and  Ex¬ 
amples  of  Conjecture,  Investigation  and 
Imagination — The  Solution 

AMONG  the  earliest  legends  of  the  human  race, 
there  survive  frequent  references  to  doves  and 
pigeons.  Noah  sent  forth  an  inquiry  concerning  the 
state  of  the  world,  before  his  ark  rested  upon  the  peak 
of  Armenia’s  highest  mountain.  The  descendants  of 
Cush,  son  of  Nimrod,  the  Hamite,  carried  into  Meso¬ 
potamia  the  memories  of  the  splendid  bird  of  Bactri- 
ana,  in  their  forms  of  worshipping  the  deity  they  re¬ 
vered;  and  ths  Assyrian  queen,  of  the  race  of  Cush¬ 
ites,  expelled  from  Babylonia  the  race  of  Shemites, 
ruled  by  Joktan’s  dynasty  in  Arabia;  for  which  glori¬ 
ous  proceeding  the  happy  people  of  her  prosperous  do¬ 
main  consecrated  the  pigeon,  as  her  beneficent  repre¬ 
sentative,  and  throughout  Chaldea  and  the  rich  Meso¬ 
potamia  plain  the  dove,  or  pigeon,  became  sacred  to 
Semiramis,  their  queen.  At  an  earlier  date  Menes,  a 
Cushite,  or  redman,  led  his  migration  to  Egypt  and 
founded  the  dynasty  on  the  Nile  that  remained  forty- 
five  centuries,  until  the  “vile  race  of  Cushites”  was 
expelled  from  the  whole  land,  in  527  B.  C.,  and  to  them 
a  pigeon  represented  Athor,  daughter  of  the  sun. 

Primitive  men,  no  doubt,  developed  faculties  of  con¬ 
jecture,  imagination  and  investigation;  they  conceived 
of  Time  as  an  unbounded  duration,  without  beginning 


84 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


85 


and  without  end,  and  they  named  it  Zervane  Akerene, 
and  other  names,  in  their  spoken  languages,  to  denote 
an  attribute  of  deity.  By  imagination  we  might  be¬ 
hold  a  planet  in  evolution,  as  a  moving  picture  from  a 
film  upon  which  scenes  have  been  recorded.  The 
science  of  geology  reads  the  records  of  past  ages  from 
rock-films,  as  they  were  written  and  preserved.  From 
remote  points  of  the  universe,  the  rays  of  reflected 
light  from  our  planet  are  now  beheld  by  the  omniscient 
eye,  as  though  the  scenes  they  reveal  were  now  be¬ 
ing  enacted  upon  the  earth — a  veritable  picture  of  the 
past  ages,  showing  past  scenes  in  panorama,  as  the 
same  rays  of  reflected  light  revealed  them  to  the  finite 
eye,  at  close  range,  in  the  long  ago.  So  we  are  enabled 
to  reconstruct  some  of  them,  imperfectly,  by  imagina¬ 
tion,  from  what  investigation  has  revealed  in  the  ex¬ 
posed  strata  of  earth-film. 

In  like  manner,  we  may  conceive  that  all  the  exper¬ 
iences  of  finite  senses  may  be  revealed  to  the  omnipo¬ 
tent  senses  of  infinite  personality,  as  the  sounds,  per¬ 
fumes,  flavors  and  sensations  of  the  prehistoric  forests 
radiated  from  the  earth  to  traverse  the  boundless 
spaces  around  us.  The  pigeon  tribes  were  in  America, 
we  have  been  told  by  the  great  geologists,  at  a  remote 
period,  when  the  forests  were  young,  after  the  car¬ 
boniferous  period,  when  the  great  araucarian  pine  for¬ 
ests  spread  out  over  this  continent.  The  araucarians 
are  extinct  now,  except  a  few  in  South  America,  and 
only  two  varieties  of  the  sequoias  remain  in  North 
America,  restricted  to  California.  They  were  the  first 


86 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


families  of  our  great  forests  and  left  records  upon  the 
Triassic  rocks,  before  the  existing  mountain  chains 
were  upheaved  from  the  Tertiary  plains.  Changes  of 
climate  eliminated  many  families  of  the  trees,  and 
finally  the  deciduous  forms  were  evolved. 

It  is  now  believed  by  some  scientists  that  a  small 
addition  to  the  carbon  dioxide  in  the  air  would  so  im¬ 
prison  earth-heat  that  temperate  conditions  would  be 
restored  nearly  to  the  poles  of  the  earth,  as  was  the 
case  when  the  tropical  trees  grew  in  far  northern 
regions  of  America;  and  when  the  great  plains  existed, 
before  the  great  mountains  were  here,  subject  to  rapid 
erosions  of  modern  times,  imprisoning  the  carbonic 
acid  gas,  as  bicarbonates,  in  the  waters  that  spread  over 
the  depressions  of  the  plain.  During  the  rest  period 
monocarbonates  formed  in  the  water,  releasing  part  of 
the  carbon  dioxide,  to  be  absorbed  into  the  air.  The 
reverse  would  be  a  Glacial  period  that  would  follow 
any  time,  when  erosions  increased  upon  earth  for  any 
considerable  period  of  time ;  as,  in  that  case,  a  per¬ 
centage  of  atmospheric  carbon  dioxide  would  be  taken 
from  the  air,  leaving  less  to  check  radiation  of  heat 
from  the  earth. 

This  is  merely  an  academic  illustration,  in  an  effort 
to  explain  the  manner  in  which  the  changes  upon  earth 
occur;  to  give  the  reason  for  disappearing  races  of 
animals  and  birds;  because  their  food  supplies  are 
affected,  as  a  family  of  trees  or  plants  declines  and 
new  forms  are  born.  There  are  such  changes,  pro¬ 
gressing  toward  consummation,  around  us  all  the  time ; 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


87 


but  many  are  not  observed  in  time  to  help  reform  the 
conditions,  in  order  to  preserve  a  useful  species.  My 
father  often  preached  protection  for  grouse,  pigeons 
and  many  other  birds.  He  taught  his  sons  the  virtue 
of  leaving  them  undisturbed  at  the  nesting  season, 
arguing,  as  the  red-men  did,  that  they  were  entitled  to 
peace,  quiet  and  protection  from  their  enemies,  at  that 
time.  From  the  great  changes  we  have  witnessed  and 
the  history  of  ages  gone,  so  briefly  referred  to  above, 
may  we  not  conjecture  that  the  creative  force  still 
dominates  the  earth? 

During  my  youthful  years  I  was  familiar  with  the 
passenger  pigeons  and  their  nesting  cities  in  McKean 
and  Potter  counties,  in  Pennsylvania.  When  they 
returned,  in  the  spring  of  1886,  I  saw  many  scouting 
flocks  and,  upon  hearing  that  they  were  gathering  along 
Pine  Creek  and  the  Kettle  Creek  tributaries,  I  went  to 
observe  them  and  make  a  careful  investigation.  From 
Coudersport  I  drove  over  the  hills,  before  dawn  of 
day,  and  reached  the  forest  they  had  selected,  about  8 
o’clock  on  the  morning  of  their  disappearance.  There 
was  not  a  live  bird  to  be  seen,  along  my  route  of  thirty 
miles;  but  young  men  were  coming  from  the  woods 
with  bags  full  of  dead  birds.  Many  of  them  were 
lumberjacks,  with,  high,  spiked  shoes  on  their  feet; 
gray  trousers,  with  legs  chopped  off  at  the  knees, 
tucked  into  high-topped  socks;  mackinaw  coats  of 
bright  red  and  brown,  and  gray,  in  large  checks ;  silken 
scarfs  around  their  necks;  and  high  hats,  of  the  vint¬ 
age  of  1851,  in  the  Knox  pattern  that  was  known  as 
the  Jenny  Lind. 


88 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  men  explained  their  regalia  by  saying  they  had 
been  out  “sporting  for  pigeons  with  the  big-bugs  and 
tried  to  dress  up  some !”  The  old  store  at  Oleona  had 
been  purchased  by  the  timber  firm  and  the  attic  emp¬ 
tied  of  such  venerable  relics  of  the  long  ago,  when  Ole 
Bornemann  Bull,  of  Norway,  violinist,  had  founded 
a  Scandinavian  colony  in  that  forest,  in  1852 ;  and  the 
reminder  of  the  “Swedish  Nightingale”  had  been  pur¬ 
chased  by  the  romantic  enthusiast,  Ole  Bull,  to  supply 
the  demand  for  silk  hats  in  the  Potter  county  forest. 
They  had  been  stored  in  the  attic  for  a  generation; 
but  at  last,  they  graced  a  most  disgraceful  occasion. 
A  thrifty  clerk  had  found  the  hats  and  sold  them  to 
the  teamsters,  log  cutters  and  bark-peelers,  for  a  dol¬ 
lar  each,  to  decorate  the  festal  holiday  at  the  pigeon 
city.  In  1850  the  great  showman,  P.  T.  Barnum, 
staged,  at  Castle  Garden,  New  York,  a  reception  to 
the  celebrated  prima  donna,  the  proceeds  of  the  first 
concert  being  donated  to  the  public  charities,  after  her 
custom.  Mr.  Barnum,  however,  realized  handsomely 
by  selling  to  the  highest  bidder,  in  various  manufac¬ 
tures,  exclusive  rights  for  making,  a  style,  to  bear  the 
name  “Jenny  Lind.”  Mr.  Knox  paid  $5,000  for  the 
hat  privilege,  and  Ole  bought  $500  worth  of  the  beau¬ 
tiful  hats  for  his  Oleona  store,  opened  in  1852.  The 
last  of  them  were  sold  in  1886  at  a  farewell  scene  for 
the  Passenger  Pigeons.  That  is  an  example  of  what 
investigation  revealed. 

During  the  month  of  March,  1892,  I  camped  in  the 
forests  of  eastern  Oklahoma,  looking  for  some  wal- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  I*T  PENNSYLVANIA 


89 


nut  timber  for  export  to  Liverpool,  England,  from 
which  to  manufacture  gunstocks.  My  guide  was  the 
dignified  Osage  Indian,  John  Aurochs,  sometimes  call¬ 
ed,  in  lighter  vein,  “ Johnny  Redox.”  I  told  the  Indian 
the  story  of  the  pigeons,  the  men,  the  hats,  and  of  the 
“Swedish  Nightingale”  and  Ole  Bull,  inquiring  if  there 
had  been  any  pigeons  seen  in  the  Indian  country  since 
the  spring  of  1886.  He  said  that  he  had  seen  only  a 
few  pigeons  during  five  years,  and  that  the  Osages 
then  revered  the  Red-bird,  the  Texas  Cardinal,  as 
their  celestial  patron,  because  the  passenger  pigeons 
returned  to  them  no  more,  as  they  formerly  did  at 
their  early  nesting  period.  Then  he  became  quiet  and 
thoughtful,  gazing  into  the  camp-fire  for  a  long  time, 
after  I  had  “rolled  up”  in  my  blanket  to  enjoy  a  long 
cool  night  of  sleep.  After  breakfast  next  morning,  he 
was  as  cheerful  as  usual  and  asked  many  questions 
about  the  hats  and  coats  the  lumberjacks  had  worn, 
when  the  pigeons  fled  from  Pennsylvania. 

At  our  camp-fire  that  night,  he  confided  to  me  his 
great,  secret  belief ;  that  the  pigeons  would  never  re¬ 
turn  ;  that  they  had  abdicated  in  favor  of  the  Red- 
birds — the  Nightingales  of  America.  That  the  Car¬ 
dinal  wears  a  high  hat,  as  the  men  did ;  and  red  and 
brown,  and  grey  coats;  and  they  sing  sweetly,  as  did 
the  Swedish  lady.  Their  flute-like  notes  are  like  the 
ones  Ole  Bull  once  charmed  the  Oleona  forest  with, 
on  his  violin.  The  scientists  will  shake  their  heads, 
saying  “Conjecture!”  To  me,  it  was  a  good  example 
of  splendid  imagination. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


An  Observer’s  Recollection  of  The  Passenger  Pigeon, 
Once  So  Numerous,  Now  Extinct 


From  Potter  County  Journal,  October  21,  1'903. 

By  EDWIN  HASKELL. 

REMARKABEE  as  was  the  sudden  disappearance 
and  almost  total  extinction  of  the  buffalo  of  the 
plains,  not  less  remarkable  was  the  sudden  disappear¬ 
ance  and  extinction  of  the  passenger  pigeon. 

But  a  few  years  ago,  this  pigeon  was  a  frequent 
migrant  from  the  northern  wilds  of  British  America 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  These  migrations  were  made 
in  vast  flocks.  These  flocks,  it  has  been  estimated, 
would  sometimes  consist  of  fifty  or  sixty  millions  of 
birds,  so  densely  massed  as  to  darken  the  sky,  and  tak¬ 
ing  two  or  three  hours  to  pass  a  given  point.  Stops 
would  be  made  in  favorable  localities  for  the  purpose 
of  nesting  and  rearing  their  young.  These  stopping 
places  were  chosen  with  the  view  of  obtaining  a  suffi¬ 
cient  amount  of  mast  to'  last  until  the  young  birds 
could  leave  their  nests  and  take  care  of  themselves, 
and  follow  the  parent  birds  to  some  new  feeding  and 
nesting  ground. 

Until  within  ten  or  fifteen  years  past,  nearly  every 
spring,  after  a  plentiful  crop  of  beechnuts  the  previous 
fall,  there  was  quite  likely  to  be  a  nesting  of  pigeons 


90 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


91 


in  one  or  another  of  the  northern  or  northwestern 
counties  of  Pennsylvania. 

Potter  county,  because  of  the  great  quantity  of 
beech  timber  in  its  forests,  seems  to  have  been  a  fav¬ 
orite  locality  for  the  nesting  of  pigeons. 

Because,  probably,  no  one  will  again  see  a  flock 
of  passenger  pigeons,  is  the  excuse  the  writer  has  for 
telling  what  he  knows  from  personal  observation,  and 
from  what  he  has  been  able  to  learn  about  this  beau¬ 
tiful  bird,  once  so  numerous,  now  extinct. 

My  recollection  goes  back  to  sixty-seven  or  sixty- 
eight  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  boy  5  or  6  years  old. 
At  which  time  pigeons  in  great  numbers  nesting  near 
my  father’s  home,  a  small  log  -house  nearly  in  the 
centre  of  a  small  clearing  in  the  forest.  It  was  so 
near  that  I  was  taken  into  the  woods  to  see  the  nests 
and  the  birds  flitting  about  in  the  tree  tops. 

I  recollect  with  what  delight  I  watched,  with  an 
elder  sister,  the  almost  endless  flock  streaming  out  of 
and  into  the  woods.  I  also  have  a  distinct  recollection 
of  many  people  coming  to  our  house  to  stay  a  day  or 
so  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  supply  of  squabs. 
They  brought  their  supply  of  provisions  to  eat,  and 
blankets  upon  which  to  sleep.  Their  cooking  was 
done  outdoor,  in  a  kettle  swung  over  a  fire,  from  a 
chain  fastened  to  a  pole,  the  ends  of  which  rested  in 
crotches  driven  into  the  ground,  or  in  frying-pans 
placed  upon  a  bed  of  live  coals. 

These  campers-out  often  consisted  of  whole  fam¬ 
ilies,  men,  women  and  children;  The  men  would  go 


92 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


into  the  woods  and  chop  down  such  trees  as  contained 
the  greater  number  of  nests,  catch  or  pick  up  the 
young  birds  and  at  once  divest  them  of  their  crops. 
Bushel  baskets  full  of  these  were  brought  to  the  house 
and  emptied  upon  the  ground.  The  women  and  chil¬ 
dren  would  remove  the  coarser  pin-feathers  and  vis¬ 
cera  and  pack  the  squabs  in  tubs  and  barrels  contain¬ 
ing  brine.  Whether  pickled  squab  was  much  of  a 
luxury  I  never  had  an  opportunity  of  knowing,  as  my 
parents  were  not  disposed  to  lay  by  a  supply  of  the 
oily  lumps. 

Soon  after  this  my  parents  moved  to  Tioga  county, 
New  York,  and  the  only  knowledge  I  had  for  some 
years  of  the  pigeons  was  that  gained  from  seeing 
transitory  flocks  that  nearly  every  year  visited  wheat 
and  buckwheat  fields,  the  former  after  the  harvest, 
and  the  latter  after  the  grain  had  been  cut  and  set  up 
in  bunches  to  dry  before  threshing.  These  stray  flocks 
would  be  coming  and  going  for  a  number  of  days ;  but 
from  whence  they  came  or  where  they  went  nobody 
seemed  to  know  or  care  then,  as  their  was  no  means 
of  readily  ascertaining.  It  may  be  safely  assumed 
that  they  were  portions  of  a  nesting  flock  hundreds  of 
miles  away  in  the  south  or  southwest.  As  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  learn,  pigeons  never  nested  in  the 
wilds  of  northern  or  western  Pennsylvania  in  the  fall. 
They  usually  nested  there  in  the  spring  after  the  danger 
had  passed. 

Ever  since  I  had  seen  pigeons  in  their  nesting  place 
when  a  child  too  young  to  carry  away  anything  but  a 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


93 


vague  impression  of  the  immensity  of  the  number  of 
birds,  and  the  peculiarity  of  the  gentle  cooing  sounds 
that  filled  the  woods,  I  had  a  desire  to  again  visit  a 
nesting  place.  I  wished  to  get  a  better  conception  of 
what  would  be  going  on  there. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1855,  I  think,  a  chance  to 
gratify  this  desire  presented  itself.  One  evening  in 
April  while  conversing  with  a  number  of  gentlemen 
on  the  corner  of  a  street  in  Coudersport,  Pennsylvania, 
one  of  them,  an  old  resident  of  Potter  county,  raised 
his  hand  and  pointed  toward  the  crest  of  the  wooded 
hill  west  of  the  village  and  called  out: 

“See  that,  gentlemen.  See  those  pigeons  circling 
in  and  out  of  the  woods,  up  there;  pigeons  are  going 
to  nest  on  the  ridge.  I  know  from  the  actions  of  those 
birds  that  they  are  spying  out  the  land  to  find  a  suit¬ 
able  place  for  a  nesting  of  the  coming  flock.  I  have 
seen  them  do  it  before.” 

“But,”  queried  a  bystander,  “how  will  they  convey 
the  intelligence  that  such  a  place  has  been  found?” 

“Don’t  know.  But,  mind  what  I  tell  you;  those 
woods  will  be  full  of  pigeons  by  daylight  tomorrow 
morning.” 

Others  of  the  group  were  quite  sure  that  the  first 
gentleman’s  prediction  was  correct.  What  was  guess¬ 
ed  at  was  assumed  to  be  a  fact. 

It  took  but  a  brief  time  to  spread  the  news  through¬ 
out  the  town.  Every  owner  of  a  gun  prepared  to  go 
for  pigeons  in  the  morning. 


94 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


A  brisk  trade  in  powder  and  shot  soon  sprung  up 
in  the  stores  keeping  the  articles,  and  lasted  until  the 
supply  was  exhausted. 

Not  being  the  owner  of  a  gun,  I  thought  for  a 
while  I  should  be  unable  to  take  part  in  beginning  the 
sport.  Quite  late  in  the  evening,  however,  a  young 
man  in  my  employ  informed  me  that  he  had  obtained 
the  loan  of  two  shotguns  until  7  o’clock  the  next  morn¬ 
ing.  He  also  obtained  a  supply  of  ammunition.  We 
planned  an  early  start  for  the  woods  on  the  hills  in 
the  morning,  thinking  that  if  the  “early  bird  gets  the 
worm”  the  early  hunter  would  stand  a  good  chance 
of  getting  the  bird. 

Early  the  next  morning  two  expectant  sportsmen 
might  have  been  seen  climbing  the  hill  west  of  the 
town — that  is,  they  might  have  been  seen  had  anyone 
been  up  to  see  them,  and  had  it  been  light  enough  to 
distinguish  objects. 

Arriving  at  the  crest,  in  a  small  opening  in  the 
forest  where  the  timber  had  been  cut  down,  they  stop¬ 
ped  and  listened.  Not  a  sound  was  to  be  heard.  The 
twilight  darkness  had  not  been  sufficiently  dispelled  to 
make  easy  the  discernment  of  objects  in  or  beneath 
the  tops  of  the  trees.  Anxiously  waiting,  the  eastern 
horizon  was  scanned  to  catch  the  first  indication  of 
the  rising  sun.  A  slight,  diffused  halo  of  light  tip¬ 
ped  the  hilltops.  Brighter  and  brighter  it  grew.  The 
orb  of  day  rose  slowly  above  the  horizon  and  shot 
rays  of  light  through  the  tree  tops,  and  dispelled  the 
hazy  darkness  beneath  them.  Not  a  pigeon  could  be 


C.  H.  SHEARER,  READING,  PA., 

Who  Painted  the  Great  Picture,  “The  Flight  of  the  Wild  Pigeons. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


95 


seen.  Not  a  cooing  of  a  pigeon  could  be  heard.  No 
life,  no  sound  savoring  of  life,  save  the  rustling  of  a 
leaf  turned  by  a  chipmunk  seeking  an  early  breakfast, 
o:  the  feeble  chirp  of  an  awakening  bird  in  the  border 
of  the  wood. 

Soon  from  the  west  there  came  a  sound  like  that 
of  an  approaching  tempest,  or  the  roar  of  a  distant 
cataract ;  swish  !  The  pigeons  had  come.  Streaming 
through  the  forest  with  such  speed  that  one  could 
catch  a  sight  of  only  a  glint  of  flapping  wings. 

Flock  followed  flock,  sitting  in  the  tops  of  the  trees 
or  lighting  on  the  ground,  and  moving  forward  still, 
as  if  impelled  by  the  momentum  gained  in  their  flight. 
Hopping,  tumbling,  flitting  over  one  another,  in  the 
eagerness  of  each  one  to  keep  in  the  front  rank. 

After  a  long  flight,  the  birds  were  hungry  and  the 
chance  of  the  hindmost  finding  many  nuts  after  the 
ground  had  been,  passed  over  was  very  small. 

The  twittering  peculiar  to  the  pigeon  when  a  flock 
was  lighting  on  the  ground  to  feed,  could  be  heard  in 
every  direction,  showing  that  the  scramble  for  nuts 
was  going  on  over  a  large  extent  of  forest  where  beech 
trees  abounded. 

When  the  pigeons  came  into  that  forest  which  was 
miles  in  extent,  there  must  have  been  thousands  of 
bushels  of  nuts  scattered  upon  the  ground.  After  they 
had  once  finished  feeding,  there  could  not  have  been 
a  possibility  of  many  being  left.  Half  a  pint  of  beech¬ 
nuts  has  been  found  in  a  pigeonrs  crop,  and  there  were 
millions  of  them !  • 


96 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


This  stripping  the  ground  of  nuts,  to  begin  with, 
was  a  surprise  to  me,  as  I  had  been  informed  by  per¬ 
sons  professing  to  know,  that  the  old  birds  never 
picked  up  the  nuts  from  the  ground  under  the  trees 
upon  which  they  built  their  nests,  but  left  them  for 
the  young  birds  when  they  left  their  nests. 

From  what  was  going  on  around  me,  it  was  evident 
that  no  such  foresight  could  be  attributed'  to  the  pigeon. 
Nature  evidently  made  all  necessary  provision  for  the 
sustenance  of  the  young  birds  on  a  small  amount  of 
food  until  they  were  ready  to  follow  their  parents  to 
new  nesting  and  feeding  grounds.  This  provision 
was  made  by  storing  up  in  the  bodies  of  the  squabs  a 
great  amount  of  fat.  Young  birds  killed  a  few  days 
after  leaving  their  nests  would  be  found  to  be  very 
lean. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  flocks  were  scattered, 
and  the  low,  gentle  cooing  of  pairs  of  birds  sidling  up 
together  on  the  limbs  of  the  trees,  indicated  that  pair¬ 
ing  off  and  choosing  places  for  nests  was  going  on. 

Other  gunners  arrived  upon  the  scene,  but  the 
pigeons  paid  no  attention  to  the  discharge  of  firearms 
and  the  slaughter  taking  place,  so  intent  where  they 
upon  attending  to  their  own  affairs. 

A  large  number  of  the  birds  were  being  killed,  but 
the  chance  for  firing  into  massed  flocks  had  passed  and 
the  hunters — if  such  they  could  be  called — did  not 
have  to  seek  their  game.  It  came  to  them  single  or 
in  pairs.  As  fast  as  one  bird  was  killed  another  would 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


97 


take  its  place.  All  that  was  necessary  to  be  done  was 
to  load  and  fire. 

Having  secured  all  the  pigeons  we  desired,  and 
the  time  having  nearly  expired  for  which  we  had  ob¬ 
tained  the  loan  of  our  guns,  we  hastened  down  the 
hill,  getting  home  in  time  for  breakfast. 

Desirous  of  gaining  further  information,  I  climbed 
the  hill  again  in  the  afternoon,  and  took  a  more  ex¬ 
tensive  survey  of  the  nesting. 

There  seemed  to  be  no  diminution  of  the  number 
of  the  birds,  but  there  was  an  absence  of  long,  strung- 
cut  flocks  moving  with  lightning-like  velocity  through 
the  woods,  showing  in  passing,  a  transitory  glint  of 
feathers  and  rapidly  beating  wings. 

But  few  birds  were  on  the  ground,  and  these  were 
in  search  of  dry  twigs  with  which  to  construct  their 
nests.  Whether  the  male  birds  assisted  in  building 
the  nests  I  was  unable  to  ascertain,  but  presumed  they 
were,  from  the  rapidity  with  which  they  were  being 
finished. 

It  was  noticeable,  however,  that  the  males  seemed 
to  get  more  time  than  the  females,  to  sit  around  on 
lower  branches  of  the  trees,  as  if  in  quiet  contempla¬ 
tion  of  what  was  going  on.  This  made  them  an  easy 
mark  for  the  gunners.  Upon  an  examination  of  al¬ 
most  any  string  of  birds  killed,  it  would  be  found  that 
nearly  all  of  them  would  be  males.  Early  the  next 
morning  a  great  number  of  the  birds  were  leaving  the 
nesting  ground  to  feed ;  that  they  were  mostly  female 
could  be  known  from  the  fact  that  when  going  out  in 


98 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


search  of  food  the  female  birds  flew  much  higher  than' 
the  males.  They  were  going  in  open  order.  Up  and 
down  the  valley,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  the  sky 
was  flecked  with  the  birds  moving  in  one  direction. 
Later  in  the  day  they  were  coming  back  in  flocks,  and 
the  males  were  leaving,  skimming  quite  near  the 
ground,  over  the  tops  of  the  hills  and  around  the  pro¬ 
jecting  points.  Toward  evening  they  returned  to  a 
roosting  plg.ce,  not  far  from  the  nesting.  Sometimes 
the  birds  would  light  in  these  places  in  such  numbers 
as  to  break  the  limbs  of  the  trees,  or  turn  them  up  by 
the  roots. 

I  did  not  go  to  the  nesting  again  for  sometime.  It 
was  not  necessary  to  go  there  for  birds  to  eat.  They 
could  be  bought  nearly  every  day  for  25  cents  a  dozen 
— about  what  the  powder  and  shot  cost  with  which  to 
kill  them.  In  those  days  people  did  not  think  of  send¬ 
ing  pigeons  to  the  city  market. 

I  had  waited  until  the  squabs  were  nearly  large 
enough  to  leave  their  nests,  having  been  informed  that 
was  the  time  to  get  them,  as  then  they  were  the  best. 

There  was  a  large  number  of  people  from  different 
sections  of  the  country,  chopping  down  trees  to  get 
the  young  birds.  So  rapidly  they  come  to  maturity, 
there  would  be  but  one  or  two  days  in  which  this  could 
be  done. 

In  choosing  trees  to  cut  down,  the  choppers  would 
look  for  those  in  which  there  was  the  greatest  number 
of  nests.  When  the  trees  came  to  the  ground,  the 
squabs  that  were  not  killed  would  flutter  off,  giving 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  99 


the  choppers  a  lively  run  before  they  were  secured. 
When  caught  the  crop  was  seized  between  the  index 
and  middle  finger,  the  hand  giving  a  quick  flirt,  re¬ 
moving  head  and  crop  with  a  single  motion. 

The  old  pigeons  paid  little  attention  to  the  felling 
of  trees.  They  were  going  and  coming  and  feeding 
the  squabs.  The  crop  of  the  pigeon  is  partially  di¬ 
vided  into  two  sections;  one  of  which  consists  of 
glands,  which  become  enlarged  when  the  birds  are 
nesting.  These  glands  secrete  a  milk-like  substance 
which  coagulates  into  a  substance  having  much  the 
appearance  of  the  curd  of  cheese.  This  curd  mixed 
with  partially  digested  food,  is  ejected  into  the  mouths 
of  the  squabs.  Fed  on  any  other  food  than  this, 
squabs  would  die.  It  seemed,  from  what  observation 
I  was  able  to  make,  that  it  required  some  time,  and 
a  season  of  rest,  for  this  secretion  and  coagulation  to 
take  place.  On  returning  from  feeding,  the  pigeons 
would  not  proceed  immediately  to  feed  the  young 
birds,  but  sit  around  on  the  branches  of  the  trees — 
usually  over  night  at  their  roosting  place. 

All  of  the  young  pigeons  seemed  to  leave  their  nests 
about  the  same  time.  At  first  their  flight  was  quite 
near  the  ground.  People  would  take  advantage  of 
this,  and  station  themselves  on  the  brow  of  the  hill, 
with  long  flexible  poles,  and  whip  into  the  low-flying 
flocks,  killing  in  this  manner  many  birds. 

In  April,  1868,  I  think  it  was,  pigeons  nested  in 
Bingham  township,  Potter  county,  Pennsylvania ;  but 
a  fall  of  snow  five  or  six  inches  in  depth,  caused  them 


100 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


to  desert  their  nests.  Luckily  for  them,  however,  a 
frost  had  occurred,  in  many  localities,  before  the  beech¬ 
nuts  were  fully  ripe,  and  the  nuts  had  not  fallen  out 
of  the  burrs.  At  that  time  I  was  preparing  to  make 
sugar.  In  some  parts  of  the  woods  were  many  beech 
trees,  from  which  a  large  proportion  of  the  nuts  had 
not  fallen.  For  two  or  three  days  after  the  snow 
storm,  along  in  the  forenoon  pigeons  would  come  in, 
immense  flocks  to  feed  on  these  nuts.  By  a  peculiar 
flapping  of  their  wings,  they  would  hold  themselves' 
suspended  in  the  air  in  an  upright  position,  at  the  ends 
of  the  twigs  of  the  trees,  and  pick  the  nuts  from  the 
burrs.  The  noise  made  by  the  flapping  of  wings  was 
almost  deafening,  and  could  be  distinctly  heard  for  a 
half  mile  or  more. 

In  a  few  sunny  places  at  the  edge  of  the  woods 
the  snow  had  thawed,  exposing  the  bare  ground.  Up¬ 
on  such  places  great  flocks  of  pigeons  would  swoop 
down,  struggling  and  scolding,  to  get  the  few  nuts  to 
be  obtained. 

The  difficulty  with  which  the  pigeons  could  obtain 
food  was  the  pigeon  netter’s  opportunity. 

A  bed  would  be  made  by  clearing  the  snow  from 
a  small  section  of  level  ground.  Upon  this  wheat  or 
buckwheat  would  be  scattered.  Beside  this  bed  a  net 
would  be  arranged,  and  so  folded  back,  that  by  the 
means  of  springs,  it  could  be  thrown  forward  quickly 
up  and  over  any  birds  that  might  light  or  hover  over 
the  bed.  For  the  purpose  of  concealing  the  netters, 
a  booth  or  hut  of  boughs  would  be  built  near  the  net, 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  101 


care  being  taken  to  have  it  resemble  as  nearly  as  pos¬ 
sible  >a  bunch  of  bushes.  From  this  hut  the  net  could 
be  sprung,  and  flyers  thrown  up.  A  flyer  was  a  pigeon 
with  a  string  tied  to  its  legs  by  which  it  could  be  pulled 
down  after  having  been  thrown  up,  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  give  it  the  appearance  of  hovering  over  a  feed¬ 
ing  place.  Another  pigeon,  called  a  stool  pigeon, 
would  be  set  upon  a  sort  of  tilting  perch  near  the 
ground,  in  the  middle  of  the  bed.  This  bird  was 
blinded  by  having  its  eyes  sewed  up.  By  tilting  this 
perch  this  pigeon  would  lift  its  wings  in  a  way  'pigeons 
had  upon  alighting  to  feed.  There  might  have  been 
various  other  ways  of  luring  the  birds  to  the  net.  At 
the  right  moment  the  man  in  the  hut  would  pull  a 
string  and  spring  the  net  over  the  birds.  So  skillful 
were  some  of  those  netters  that  no  device  other  than 
the  flyers  would  be  used  to  lure  the  birds.  When  a 
passing  flock  would  swoop  near  the  ground  to  see  what 
the  flyers  had  found,  the  net  would  be  thrown  at  the 
right  moment  for  the  birds  to  pile  into  it.  The  num¬ 
ber  that  would  be  caught  in  this  manner  was  dependent 
upon  the  length  and  width  of  the  net  and  the  size  of 
the  flock. 


Netting  Pigeons  and  ihe  Slaughter 

In  one  instance  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  in  a 
booth  when  an  enormous  haul  of  birds  was  made  in 
this  way.  The  net  was  thrown  just  in  time  to  scoop 
ir  a  large  portion  of  a  flock  skimming  near  the  ground 
past  the  hut,  having  been  attracted  there  by  the  flyers. 


102 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


As  the  net  came  down  the  momentum  of  their  flight 
piled  them  up  several  courses  deep.  In  a  moment  a 
pigeon’s  head  protruded  from  every  mesh  in  the  net. 
So  great  was  the  number  of  the  birds,  struggling  de¬ 
sperately  to  free  themselves,  that  I  was  called  upon  to 
’throw  myself  upon  the  net  and  help  hold  it  down  else 
the  pigeons  would  escape.  With  our  weight  and  using 
both  hands  and  feet  to  the  utmost  of  our  strength,  for 
a  time  it  seemed  as  though  the  net  would  be  raised  in 
spite  of  our  efforts.  What  else  to  do  was  difficult  to 
determine.  We  could  not  let  go  of  the  net  to  kill  the 
birds  with  our  hands — what,  then,  was  to  be  done? 
The  old  pigeon  catcher  who  had  sprung  the  net  de¬ 
cided  quickly,  by  setting  an  example  and  yelling  to  me ; 

“Bite  their  heads!  Bite  their  heads!  Do  you  hear?” 
“Not  for  all  the  pigeons  in  the  world,”  I  replied. 
“Pshaw!  Don’t  be  squeamish!  See  how  its  done!”  he 
called  out  impatiently,  and  went  on  crushing  the  skulls 
of  the  heads  protruding  through  the  meshes  of  the  net, 
until  the  difficulty  of  holding  it  down  had  passed  and 
a  less  revolting,  if  not  more  merciful,  method  of  kill¬ 
ing  the  remainder  of  the  birds  could  be  devised.. 

I  could'  kill  pigeons  with  a  gun  without  any  com¬ 
punction.  But  crushing  the  skulls  of  live  birds  be¬ 
tween  my  teeth !  Faugh !  It  makes  me  shudder  to  think 
of  it. 

During  the  few  days  the  snow  covered  the  ground, 
some  of  the  men,  netting  pigeons  in  Bingham  town¬ 
ship,  caught  from  five  to  eight  hundred  dollars’  worth 
of  the  birds. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  103 


The  snow  having  melted  from  the  ground,  the 
flock  that  had  dispersed  over  a  wide  extent  of  coun¬ 
try  in  search  of  food,  came  together  in  a  nesting  place 
on  the  ridges  adjacent  to  the  head  of  Dingman  Run, 
not  far  from  Coudersport.  About  a  week  later,  a  very 
large  flock  that  had  been  driven  from  their  nests  by 
the  snow  storm,  came  from  Cameron  county,  or  Elk 
county,  and  joined  the  pigeons  that  had  come  from 
the  abandoned  nesting  in  Bingham  township  extend¬ 
ing  the  Dingman  Run  nesting  several  miles  along  the 
ridge  between  the  Allegheny  river  and  the  Oswayo 
creek. 

By  this  time  the  netting  and  shooting  of  pigeons, 
to  be  sold  in  the  city  markets,  had  become  a  well  or¬ 
ganized  business.  Correspondence,  by  means  of  tele¬ 
graph,  was  kept  up  from  all  the  regions  in  which  the 
pigeons  were  accustomed  to  nest.  Those  engaged  in 
the  business  were  supplied  with  accurate  information 
as  to  the  locality  where  the  birds  might  be  found  at  any 
given  time,  with  an  estimate  of  their  number  and  di¬ 
rections  as  to  the  most  direct  route  by  rail,  to  a  point 
nearest  nesting  place.  This  accounts  for  the  great 
slaughter  of  pigeons  that  took  place  during  their  nest¬ 
ing  in  the  vicinity  of  Dingman  Run. 

All  that  time  I  had  not  seen  pigeons  in  their  nesting 
place  for  some  years.  Having  been  informed  that  the 
squabs  were  about  to  leave  their  nests,  I  arranged  with 
two  or  three  neighbors  to  go  to  the  nesting  ground  for 
a  mess.  Having  several  miles  to  drive,  we  started 
early  in  the  morning,  so  that  more  time  might  be  had 


104 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


in  the  woods.  One  route  lay  through  Coudersport. 
When  within  two  or  three  miles  of  that  town,  we  were 
met  by  a  young  man  on  a  cantering  horse.  He  drew 
up  his  perspiring  steed  and  inquired  whether  we  had 
seen  a  team  on  the  road  that  was  bringing  a  load  of 
goods  from  Wellsville,  New  York.  Among  the  goods 
was  a  quantity  of  shot  which  his  firm  had  given  the 
driver  a  commission  to  procure  for  them.  He  de¬ 
scribed  the  man  and  team.  We  told  him  no  such  man 
and  team  had  been  seen.  Turning  his  horse,  quickly, 
and  urging  it  into  a  gallop,  he  disappeared  up  the  road 
muttering  incoherent  imprecations  against  tardy  team¬ 
sters  in  general.  Wellsville,  at  that  time,  was  the 
nearest  point  from  Coudersport  at  which  a  railroad 
could  be  reached. 

The  presence  of  so  many  people  near  the  town, 
engaged  in  killing,  catching,  buying  and  shipping  pi¬ 
geons  had  caused  such  an  influx  of  money,  that  the 
dealers  in  hunters’  and  sportsmen’s  supplies  were  anx¬ 
ious  R>  meet  the  demand  as  far  as  possible.  Their 
stock  of  shot  had  become  exhausted.  Hence  the  dis¬ 
patch  of’a  courier  to  hurry  up  the  laggard  teamster. 

On  entering  the  town,  its  streets,  usually  so  quiet, 
presented  a  novel  spectacle.  Men  carrying  gune  were 
coming  into  town  from  various  directions.  They  came 
in  carriages,  buggies,  lumber  wagons,  on  horseback  and 
on  foot.  A  motley  crowd.  The  scene  was  analogous 
to  nothing  else  I  ever  saw,  unless  it  was  an  assembling 
of  militia  for  an  old-fashioned  general  training. 


A  PAIR  OF  PASSENGER  PIGEONS 
With  Their  Nest,  Showing  the  Two  Eggs.  (From  an  Old  Print.) 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


105 


The  pigeon  nesting  was  a  boon  to  many  poor  men. 
Ten  or  twelve  dollars’  worth  of  the  old  birds  was 
frequently  the  result  of  one  day’s  shooting.  One  dol¬ 
lar  per  dozen  was  the  price  of  pigeons  on  the  ground. 
The  price  for  squabs  was  forty  cents  per.  (dozen. 
An  industrious  man,  handy  with  an  axe,  could  earn 
more  getting  squabs  than  could  be  earned  by  shooting 
the  old  birds.  Breech-loading  guns  had  not  come  into 
general  use  at  that  time.  The  old  muzzle  loading  gun 
was  liable  to  become  'so  foul  on  a  damp  day  as  to  be 
unserviceable,  if  many  consecutive  shots  were  fired 
in  a  short  time.  It  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  how 
much  greater  must  have  been  the  slaughter,  in  after 
times,  when  modern  firearms  had  come  into  general 
use. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  nesting,  hundreds  of  acres 
of  beech  forest  was  being  felled  for  the  squabs,  great 
numbers  of  these  were  taken  to  a  shanty  and  sold  to 
buyers,  who  had  men  hired  to  prepare  and  pack  them 
for  transportation  to  market.  Gunners  swarmed  in 
every  section  of  the  forest,  the  thud  of  the  axm'an’s 
strokes,  the  crash  of  falling  trees,  the  flutter  of  wings 
and  cooing  of  pigeons,  the  incessant  report  of  shot¬ 
guns,  the  laughter,  cursing  and  shouting  of  men  filled 
the  woods  with  a  medley  of  sounds  almost  crazing,  and 
made  it  seem  as  though  it  were  a  pendemonium  for  a 
saturnalia'  of  slaughter. 


106 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Historical  Comment — Last  Appearance  of  Pigeons 

In  the  fields  near  the  nesting  grounds  the  nettqrs 
waited  for  outgoing  and  incoming  flocks. 

Early  in  the  morning,  when  the  pigeons  were 
hungry,  was  thought  to  be  the  most  favorable  time  to 
lure  them  to  the  nets.  It  might  happen,  however,  that 
clouds  would  prolong  the  twilight,  or  a  dense  fog  shut 
out  from  the  ground  the  rays  of  the  rising  sun,  ren¬ 
dering  it  difficult  for  the  birds,  in  their  flight,  to  dis¬ 
cern  objects  near  the  earth;  when  this  was  the  case 
the  pigeons  flew  high.  An  attempt  to  attract  their 
attention  would  be  useless. 

The  return  flight,  however,  was  usually  made  to¬ 
wards  evening,  in  broad  daylight,  but,  if  the  birds  had 
been  successful  in  filling  their  crops,  the  attempt  to 
call  them  down  would  be  unavailing.  As  the  country 
for  a  long  distance  in  every  direction  had  become  di¬ 
vested  of  food,  the  birds  would  frequently  return  to 
their. nesting  place  with  very  little  in  their  crops.  Then 
the  sight  of  a  flyer,  or  a  stool  pigeon,  fluttering  just 
above  the  ground,  as  if  alighting  for  the  purpose  of 
picking  up  some  sort  of  grain  or  nuts,  they  would 
swoop  down,  huddled  together  in  almost  a  solid  mass, 
and  the  netter  would  make  a  big  haul. 

The  depletion  of  the  great  flack,  by  netters  and  gun¬ 
ners-  was  by  no  means  restricted  to  the  nesting  ground 
and  its  vicinity.  Over  a  vast  extent  of  country  em¬ 
bracing  thousands  of  square  miles — wherever  the  pi¬ 
geons  were  coming  and  going  nearly  every  day — their 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


107 


destruction  was  going  on,  and  had  been  going  on  for 
weeks. 

Yet  a  person  could  scarcely  be  found  who  thought 
that  any  perceptible  diminution  could  be  made  in  their 
numbers.  As  yet,  no  note  of  warning  had  been 
sounded  which  the  public  would  heed. 

One  or  two  days  after  my  trip  to  the  Dingman  Run 
nesting  place  the  squabs  left  their  nests — full-fledged 
pigeons — the  term  squab  applying  to  them  no  more. 
The  old  pigeons  had  started  on  their  migration  to  a 
new  nesting  place  in  the  far  northwest.  The  young 
birds  stayed  two  or  three  days  longer ;  by  short  flights 
spreading  over  quite  a  large  extent  of  the  adjacent 
territory,  to  gain  strength  and  facility  in  the  use  of 
their  wings  before  attempting  the  long,  sustained  flight 
necessary  to  keep  them  in  touch  with  the  older  birds 
in  their  migrations.  .They  kept  spreading  out,  mov¬ 
ing  on  in  small  flocks,  in  search  of  food,  until  all  at 
once  they  were  gone.  Where?  No  one  seemed  to 
know,  except  the  men  whose  business  of  pigeon  netting 
and  killing  made  it  necessary .  for  them  to  keep  track 
of  them. 

Before  they  could  join  the  old  pigeons,  and  a  nest¬ 
ing  place  be  chosen,  these  men  were  after  them  in 
order  to  be  on  hand,  when  and  wherever  that  might 
be,  to  commence  anew  the  slaughtering. 

When  the  pigeons  left  Dingman  Run,  the  nesting 
of  pigeons  in  great  numbers  in  Potter  and  adjoining 
counties  of  Pennsylvania  was  a  thing  of  the  past. 


108 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Two  small  flocks  nested,  it  is  true,  near  Cherry 
Springs,  in  1882  or  1883,  I  think  it  was.  That  was  the 
last  of  the  passenger  pigeon  in  Potter  county.  (It  was 
in  1886). 

There  was  said  to  have  been  a  large  nesting  of  the 
pigeons  in  North  Dakota,  in  1889.  The  pot  hunters 
and  netters  slaughtered  millions  of  the  birds,  sending 
them  to  market  by  the  car-loads.  About  that  time  I 
recollect  reading  an  account  of  pigeons  nesting  in  the 
Indian  Territory,  250  miles  from  any  railroad.  Pre¬ 
vious  to  that  time  there  had  been  two  great  flocks  in  the 
United  States.  Then  there  was  only  one.  One  of  the 
flocks  had  been  exterminated.  Probably  the  flock  that 
nested  in  Dakota  was  the  same  that  nested  in  the  In¬ 
dian  Territory.  Whether  that  was  the  case,  I  have 
never  been  able  to  learn.  It  was  reported  that  a  large 
flock  of  pigeons  had  been  seen  nesting  in  Mexico.  It 
has  since  been  ascertained  that  they  were  not  passen¬ 
ger  pigeons,  but  another  species.  The  opinion  that  the 
persistent  following  and  killing  of  pigeons,  in  their 
nesting  places,  in  the  United  States  and  British  Amer¬ 
ica,  had  caused  the  birds  to  seek  refuge  in  Mexico  or 
Central  America,  had  to  be  abandoned. 

That  the  passenger  pigeon  could  have  stayed  con¬ 
tinuously,  for  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years,  in  the  fast¬ 
ness  of  the  unexplored  wilds  of  British  America,  is 
to  suppose  an  impossibility.  The  rigor  of  the  climate 
precluded  any  such  protracted  stay.  It  might  be  more 
reasonable  to  suggest,  that  after  the  pigeons  nested  in 
the  Indian  Territory  and  North  Dakota,  they  migrated 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


109 


to  the  northern  wilds  of  British  America,  and  were  at 
some  time  caught  in  a  great  blizzard  and  perished  from 
cold,  thereby  wiping  the  species  from  the  face  of  the 
earth. 

It  may  be  claimed,  in  refutation  of  this  supposition, 
that  a  number  of  the  people  have  reported  that  they 
have  seen  pigeons,  since  that  time  in  small  flocks,  or 
in  single  pairs  in  the  mountain  regions  of  Pennsylva¬ 
nia.  It  is  quite  probable  that  these  persons  made  the 
mistake  of  taking  turtle  doves  for  passenger  pigeons. 
This  might  have  been  done  very  easily,  as  the  turtle 
dove  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  pigeon.  This 
dove  is  usually  to  be  found  in  single  pairs,  or  in  small 
flocks,  as  were  the  pigeons  reported  to  have  been  seen. 
These  doves  are  quite  plentiful  in  some  parts' of  Penn¬ 
sylvania.  However,  I  think  it  safe  to  assume,  that  a 
passenger  pigeon  has  not  been  seen  in  Pennsylvania, 
nor  in  any  other  of  the  United  States,  or  in  British 
America,  Mexico,  or  any  other  part  of  the  world,  in 
ten  years. 

However  phenomenal  was  the  sudden  disappear¬ 
ance  of  a  bird  of  such  wonderful  fecundity;  however 
unexplainable  such  a  sudden  extinction  may  be,  yet  it 
must  be  accepted  as  an  indisputable  fact. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


OUR  FOREST  FOLLOWED 

THE  PASSENGER  PIGEONS 


Rise,  Activity  and  Decline  of  a  Hemlock  Lumber 
Town  in  Pennsylvania — Cross  Forks 

From  Munsey’s  Magazine  (Abridged.) 

THE  beginning  of  the  harvest  of  hemlock  bark  and 
timber,  in  .the  Potter  county  forest,  was  about 
1872,  reaching  full  volume  in  1892,  and  declining,  to 
finish  in  1912,  except  some  isolated  parcels  of  timber 
land  that  remained  when  the  big  sawmills  and  the 
lumberjacks  left  or  turned  to  other  occupations. 
Many  of  our  townships,  in  turn,  turned  giddy  with 
prosperity  for  a  few  years  and  then  fell  upon  dull 
times,  for  a  time,  until  the  readjustment  to  new  con¬ 
ditions  made  the  people  ready  for  a  more  stable  pros¬ 
perity  in  lines  of  permanent  industry,  and  the  real 
town,  beneath  the  giddy  vision,  had  a  new  birth. 

The  Fountain  of  Prosperity 

The  fountain  from  which  all  this  prosperity  flowed 
was,  of  course,  the  big  sawmill  of  the  Lackawanna 
Lumber  Company.  This,  as  has  been  said,  started 
operations  in  1895.  It  was  burned  down  the  next  year, 
and  in  1897  was  replaced  by  a  bigger,  busier  and  bet¬ 
ter  mill.  This  in  turn  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  the 


no 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


111 


spring  of  1903,  together  with  thirteen  million  feet  of 
stacked  lumber  in  the  yards. 

Such  little  accidents  were  not  allowed  to  delay 
things  long,  however,  and  by  autumn  of  the  same  year 
the  biggest  and  best  mill  of  the  three  was  in  full  swing. 
It  had  a  daily  capacity  of  two  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  board  feet,  which  meant  a  yearly  capacity  of 
seventy-two  million  board  feet.  In  other  words,  as 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town  pointed  out  with  justifiable 
pride,  “the  lumber  cut  of  two  years  would  be  more 
than  sufficient  to  encircle  the  globe  with  boards  an  inch 
thick’  and  twelve  inches  wide.” 

The  value  of  the  annual  output  of  rough  lumber 
was  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  million  dollars.  Much 
of  this  was  further  manufactured  at  the  planing-mill, 
ruij  in  conjunction  with  the  sawmill  by  the  Lacka¬ 
wanna  Lumber  Company,  which  also  maintained  a  lath- 
mill  and  its  own  machine-shops. 

Another  industry  which  helped  to  keep  things 
booming  was  the  stave-mill  established  by  the  Penn¬ 
sylvania  Stave  Company.  It  started  operations  in  1897, 
purchasing  its  timber  in  the  woods  from  the  Lacka¬ 
wanna  Lumber  Company,  but  doing  its  own  logging. 
This  mill  also  had  its  own  machine-shops.  A  kindling- 
mill,  a  shingle-mill,  and  a  hub-factory  also  existed  for 
longer  or  shorter  periods. 

Breaking  records  was  a  favorite  pastime  for  Cross 
Fork’s  industries.  The  spirit  of  rivalry,  of  push,  of 
hurry-up  in  general,  was  always  in  the  air.  Every 
woods-crew  was  anxious  to  beat  the  record  of  another, 


112 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


or  to  set  its  own  one  notch  higher,  and  the  company, 
of  course  had  no  objection.  The  cut  of  the  Lacka¬ 
wanna  Lumber  Company  reached  its  high-water  mark 
in  January,  1906;  during  that  month  the  sawmill  came 
to  the  front  with  a  cut  of  6,659,695  board  feet,  the  lath 
mill  cut  2,254,300  pieces,  and  the  planing-mill  boasted 
of  2,286,988  board  feet  planed  and  .matched. 

A  Busy  Community 

Business  unquestionably  was  active.  The  Lacka¬ 
wanna  store  run  by  the  Lackawanna  Lumber  Com¬ 
pany  did  a  larger  trade  than  any  other  store 
iu  LotteL  county.  Yet  it  had  a  lot  of  com¬ 
petition,  for  Cross  Fork  also  contained  five  groceries, 
a  dry-goods  shop,  a  millinery  shop,  two  clothing  stores, 
a  shoe  store,  two  drug  stores,  a  hardware  store,  a 
sporting  goods  store,  and  numerous  other  retail  estab¬ 
lishments.  It  had  three  doctors,  a  dentist,  and  two 
undertakers.  Its  post-office  was  one  of  the  few  in¬ 
ternational  money  order  offices  in  the  county,  and 
action  by  the  President  and  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  was  necessary  to  appoint  its  postmaster. 

Seven  hotels — one  of  them  ranked  high  among  the 
best  in  Potter  county  and  offered  a  welcome  to  the 
traveler.  Three  restaurants,  one  of  which  advertised 
to  purvey  anything  that  Delmonico’s  did,  ministered 
to  the  wants  of  the  inner  man.  Licensed  saloons 
there  were  none,  but  each  hotel  had  a  bar,  supplied 
by  the  wholesale  liquor  store  and  there  were  unlicensed 


CHARLES  H.  ELDON 

Premier  Naturalist  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  with  Male  Passen¬ 
ger  Pigeon  Which  He  Mounted,  Now  in  His  Possession 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  113 


'‘blind  tigers”  or  “pig’s  ears,”  galore.  Gambling  dens 
and  disorderly  houses  also  flournished,  and  any  one 
who  really  wanted  to  be  wicked  had  every  ,  opportunity 
to  be  so. 

Lest  this  should  give  an  unfair  impression  of  the 
town,  it  should  be  added  that  there  were  also  four 
churches,  and  the  efforts  of  these  were  supplemented 
by  occasional  visits  from  traveling  evangelists.  The 
W.  C.  T.  U.  was  active.  So  also  was  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
which  had  a  fine  building,  with  gymnasium  and  baths. 

For  those  with  fraternal  leanings  there  were 
lodges  of  Masons,  Maccabees,  and  Odd-Fellows.  Oth¬ 
ers  socially  inclined  derived  their  amusement  from  the 
local  literary  society,  card-clubs  and  dances.  Ten 
young  ladies,  apparently  of  classical  tastes,  formed 
themselves  into  a  club  called  the  Bellae  Decern- — the 
Beautiful  Ten.  *  *  *  * 

Back  of  all  this  activity  in  the  town  was  the  woods 
work  of  getting  out  the  logs  and  sending  them  to  the 
mills.  Logging  railroads  ran  every  creek  bottom,  and 
lumber-camps  abounded.  In  addition  to  the  timber 
cut  for  the  Cross  Fork  mills,  some  twenty  million  board 
feet,  or  more,  were  driven  every  year  down  Kettle 
Creek  and  the  Susquehanna  to  Williamsport. 

About  five  thousand  lumberjacks — or  “hicks,”  inj 
local  parlace — were  engaged  in  the  work.  They  were 
of  the  rough,  roving  type  characteristic  of  their  calling. 
For  the  most  part  unmarried  and  homeless,  they  lived 


114 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


from  hand  to  mouth,  saving  money  in  the  woods  only 
to  squander  it  to  the  last  red  cent  as  soon  as  they  struck 
town.  *  *  *  * 

Other  evidences  of  the  liveliness  of  the  town  were 
to  be  found  in  its  band,  its  enterprising  hose-company, 
and  its  successful  baseball  team,  in  whose  ranks  were 
included  professionals  on  the  pay-roll  of  the  Lacka¬ 
wanna  Lumber  Company.  Still  further  evidence, 
though  scarcely  so  deserving  of  praise,  was  the  ten¬ 
dency  toward  disorder,  which  is  so  often  tolerated  by 
boom  towns,  with  their  worship  of  individual  liberty. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Cross  Fork  was  never  in¬ 
corporated  and  never  had  a  policeman.  As  the  News 
put  it,  '‘one  would  be  at  liberty  to  operate  a  Gatling 
gun  in  the  streets  here,  and  we  doubt  if  there  would  be 
more  than  half  a  dozen  dissentient  voices.” 

As  to  the  population  of  the  town,  opinions  differ. 
The  census  of  1910  showed  a  population  of  1,299  in 
Stewardson  Township,  but  this  did  not  include  South 
Cross  Fork,  just  over  the  line  in  Clinton  County;  and 
then  every  one  knows  that  census  figures  never  do  jus¬ 
tice  to  his  home  town.  Cross  Fork  itself  owned  up  to 
about  twenty-five  hundred  and  enthusiastic  boomers 
sometimes  ran  it  up  toward  three  thousand.  The 
Pennsylvania  Department  of  Forestry  places  the  pop¬ 
ulation,  in  the  period  of  prosperity,  at  about  two  thous¬ 
and  and  this  is  probably  a  fair  and  conservative  esti¬ 
mate. 

Certain  it  is  that  in  the  heyday  of  Cross  Fork  the 
population  exceeded  the  accommodations.  Laborers 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


115 


with  families  were  constantly  leaving,  not  because  there 
was  no  work  to  be  had  but  because  there  were  nd 
houses  in  which  to  live. 

So  far  as  modern  improvements  were  concerned 
the  town  was  well  off.  Two  separate  electric-light 
systems  made  things  brilliant  by  night,  while  two  water 
systems  and  good  sewerage  provided  satisfactory  sani¬ 
tation.  Telephones  installed  by  a  local  company,  and 
well  patronized,  made  gossip  easy  and  facilitated  busi¬ 
ness.  *  *  *  * 

Signs  of  Decline 

The  beautiful  school  building  was  offered  for  sale. 
The  walls,  which  are  tinted,  are  adorned  with  pictures 
and  maps.  There  is  a  good  sized  cellar,  with  a  first 
class  steam  furnace  in  excellent  repair,  as  are  also 
the  plumbing  arrangements.  The  desks  and  seats  are 
likewise  in  good  condition.  There  are  eight  hundred 
feet  of  running  black  board  more  than  forty-two  inches 
wide.  Many  text  books,  a  good  deal  of  laboratory 
equipment,  and  two  organs  are  also  included.  All  of 
this  is  for  sale  and  still  no  purchaser  comes  forward. 
What  a  rare  opportunity  for  any  one  with  a  weak¬ 
ness  for  white  elephants. 

There  is  another  side  to  the  picture.  Instead  of 
paying  for  the  school  building  entirely  out  of  current 
expenses,  the  township  issued  three  thousand  dollars’ 
worth  of  bonds.  These  were  in  six  series  of  five  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  each,  payment  on  which  was  to  begin  in 
1902  and  continue  for  six  years.  A.s  it  turned  out, 


116 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


however,  the  school  board  “owing  to  financial  diffi¬ 
culties,”  did  not  pay  the  bonds  as  they  matured,  and 
the  debt  still  remained  on  the  township  after  the  bot¬ 
tom  fell  out  in  1909.  As  a  result  the  tax  rate  for  school 
purposes,  which  in  1898  was  as  low  as  two  and  one- 
half  mills,  is  now  two  and  one-half  cents  on  the  dollar. 

Similarly,  the  road  supervisors  in  1901  and  1904  bor¬ 
rowed  in  all  forty-six  hundred  dollars  payable  on  de¬ 
mand.  Like  the  school  bonds,  these  notes  had  not  been 
paid  when  the  crash  came,  and  the  burden  now  rests 
upon  the  few  people  still  left  in  the  township.  The 
tax  for  road  purposes  is  now  ten  mills,  as  against  five 
mills  in  ^1 898,  and  even  this  rate  is  insufficient  to  meet 
the  interest  on  the  bonds  to  say  nothing  of  the  princi¬ 
pal  and  the  money  required  for  current  work. 

Real  estate  values  in  the  township,  according  to  offi¬ 
cial  figures  have  decreased  from  $896,862  in  1904  to 
$18,815  in  1914,  and  the  town  would  have  been  ab¬ 
solutely  bankrupt  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  assistance 
rendered  by  the  state. 

“Even  cities  have  their  graves,”  and  Cross  Fork’s 
looks  wide  and  deep.  Nevertheless,  cities  may  also 
have  their  resurrections,  and  there  are  indications  that 
a  revivified,  more  wholesome,  and  more  permanent 
Cross  Fork  may  yet  rise  out  of  the  ashes  of  the  old. 

*  *  *  * 

The  big  sawmill  of  the  Lackawanna  Lumber  Com¬ 
pany  closed  down  in  April,  1909 ;  and  by  autumn  of  the 
same  year  the  exodus  from  the  town  was  in  full  swing. 
One  of  the  hotels  burned  down  in  June  and  another  in 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


117 


July.  From  then  on  sporadic  fires  were  fairly  com¬ 
mon,  until  in  February,  1910,  a  whole  block  was  de¬ 
stroyed. 

This  was  too  much  for  the  fire  insurance  com¬ 
panies,  which  up  to  that  time  had  paid  all  losses 
promptly  if  not  cheerfully.  All  existing  policies  in 
Cross  Fork  were  canceled,  and  the  companies  refused 
to  write  any  new  ones.  Possibly  the  remedy  was  a 
drastic  one.  Certainly  it  effected  an  immediate  cure. 
Fires  stopped,  and  in  their  place  was  started  a  series 
of  forced  sales. 

Every  one  was  anxious  to  liquidate  such  assets  as 
he  might  have  to  clear  out.  Five-room  frame  houses, 
with  steam  , water,  and  bath,  were  offered  for  twenty- 
five  dollars,  and  a  seven  room  house  for  thirty-five, 
without  finding  a  buyer.  Many  dwellings  were  torn 
down,  and  everything  salable  shipped  out  of  town. 

In  the  winter  of  1912-1913  the  stave  mill  followed 
the  sawmill.  In  the  fall  of  1913  the  Buffalo  and  Sus¬ 
quehanna  Railroad,  which  for  some  time  had  been  run¬ 
ning  only  three  trains  a  week,  discontinued  its  service 
entirely,  and  the  next  spring  tore  up  its  rails.  That  was 
the  coup  de  grace ;  Cross  Fork  was  dead.  In  four 
years  its  population  had  shrunk  from  two  thousand  or 
more  to  sixty-one ! 

No  longer  did  the  woods  resound  to  the  blows  of 
the  ax  and  the  shouts  of  the  fellers ;  no  longer  did  the 
town  answer  merrily  to  the  hum  of  the  saw.  The  for¬ 
ests  were  gone,  and  with  them  departed  the  prosperity 
o :  a  region  of  little  value  for  agriculture  or  mining. 


118 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Fires  had  followed  lumbering;  puny  fire-cherries, 
sumac  and  blackberry  bushes  now  grow  in  the  place 
of  mighty  hemlocks  which  once  had  flournished.  Deso¬ 
lation  reigned  supreme. 

Hopes  for  the  Future 

Even  while  lumbering  operations  were  in  full  swing, 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  began  to  buy  up  cut-over 
land  in  Potter  County.  These  purchases  gradually 
increased  as  the  cutting  progressed  until  today  the  State 
owns  more  than  forty-one  thousand  acres  in  Steward- 
son  Township,  including  the  site  of  the  town  of  Cross 
Fork.  Practically  all  this  land  is  chiefly  valuable  for 
permanent  forest  production,  and  is  being  handled  by 
the  state  with  this  end  in  view. 

Fire  protection  has  been  assured  by  the  building  of 
look-out  towers  and  the  clearing  of  land  lanes,  the 
employment  of  forest  rangers.  Roads  have  been  brush¬ 
ed  out  and  ditches  dug.  Springs  have  been  cleaned  and 
repaired.  Telephone  lines  have  been  maintained  and 
in  some  places  extended.  Reforestation  of  the  denud¬ 
ed  hill  has  been 'begun  by  the  planting  of  white  pine 
and  other  trees. 

The  State  has,  in  short,  regarded  its  lands  as  a  per¬ 
manent  investment,  and  has  set  out  to  manage  them  in 
a  business  like  way.  As  the  local  residents  have  grad¬ 
ually  come  to  realize  this  fact,  their  original  attitude 
of  at  least  partial  hospitality  has  been  replaced  by  one 
of  cordial  co-operation.  Their  fear  that  public  owner- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


119 


ship  might  be  accompanied  by  yards  of  red  tape  and 
volumes  of  burdensome  restrictions  has  been  dispelled 
and  they  are  now  ready  to  admit  that  the  State  is  a 
good  landlord. 

In  Cross  Fork  itself  the  State  has  accomplished 
wonders  in  bringing  order  out  of  chaos  that  followed 
the  collapse  of  the  town.  Old  buildings  have  been  torn 
down,  excavations  have  been  filled  in,  and  rubbish  in 
general  cleared  away.  The  buildings  belonging  to  the 
State  have  been  painted  and  put  in  good  repair.  The 
mill-pond  has  been  drained  and  cleaned,  and  the  crib¬ 
bing  along  the  creek  re-enforced  to  prevent  washing. 
As  a  rsult,  an  orderly  little  country  hamlet  has  appeared 
as  if  by  magic  out  of  the  rack  and  ruin  of  the  former 
town. 

Furthermore,  the  State  has  repaired  the  main  water 
system  of  the  town,  and  supplies  water  to  the  pres¬ 
ent  inhabitants  free  of  charge.  In  connection  with  this, 
a  fire  department  is  also  maintained  by  the  State.  Some, 
street  tree  planting  has  been  done  and  more  is  planned. 
A  small  public  library  has  been  started,  is  open  to  all 
free  of  charge.  Plans  have  also  been  formed  for  the 
establishment  of  a  recreation  room  for  the  children 
and  of  another  for  the  older  people.  Basket  picnics, 
with  music  for  the  entire  community,  have  proved  a 
great  success. 

As  the  cut-over  lands  begin  to  bear  timber  once 
more,  the  state  will  try  to  establish  new  wood-using 
industries  in  Cross  Fork,  which  will  increase  in  size  and 
importance  as  the  forest  comes  back.  Then  the  town 


120 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


will  once  more  resound  to  the  hum  of  the  saw,  and 
will  again  contribute  its  share  to  the  production  of  the 
world. 

Never  again  will  it  see  a  sawmill  capable  of  turn¬ 
ing  out  six  million  board  feet  of  lumber  a  month,  for 
the  cut  from  the  State  lands  will  be  limited  to  what 
they  actually  produce  each  year.  Instead,  it  will  see 
what  is  far  better — a  number  of  smaller  but  more  stable 
industries,  supporting  a  thriving  forest  community  of 
permanent  homes. 

A  Tale  that  Points  a  Moral 

So  runs  the  tale  of  Cross  Fork.  It  is  merely  a  strik¬ 
ing  illustration  of  a  commonplace  occurrence  in  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  America.  Many  another  sawmill  and 
lumbering  town  has  had  a  similar  history.  A  brief 
period  of  strenuous  and  even  frenzied  existence  has 
been  followed  by  sudden'  death,  with  prospects  for  a 
distant — sometimes  very,  very  distant — resurrection. 

Until  comparatively  recent  years  the  policy,  or  per¬ 
haps  lack  of  policy,  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  and 
State  governments  in  the  handling  of  their  forest  lands 
has  been  such  as  to  invite  waste  and  to  discourage  per¬ 
manence  in  the  wood-using  industries  of  the  country. 
Pennsylvania  is  not  alone  in  having  disposed  of  its  fin¬ 
est  woodlands  for  twenty-six  and  two-thirds  cents  an 
acre,  only  to  buy  them  back  again  for  three  or  four  dol¬ 
lars  an  acre  after  the  timber  has  been  removed  and 
the  land  devasted  by  fire. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


121 


Throughout  the  country  millions  of  acres  of  pub¬ 
lic  land  of  far  greater  value  for  forest  production  than 
for  agriculture  or  mining  have  been  allowed  to  pass 
into  private  ownership.  No  particular  blame  attaches 
to  the  landowners  and  lumbermen  for  proceeding  to 
realize  as  soon  as  possible  all  that  they  could  from  such 
lands.  Popular  opinion,  for  the  most  part,  has  looked 
on  forests  in  much  the  same  light  as  mines — as  natural 
resource  which  should  be  turned  into  cold  cash  as  rap¬ 
idly  as  possible. 

So  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  cutting  proceeded 
feverishly,  with  a  reckless  disregard  for  the  future. 
Timber  was  forced  upon  the  market  ahead  of  any  real 
demand  for  it,  and  the  forest  capital  of  the  country  was 
rapidly  depleted.  Money  circulated  freely,  but  only  a 
comparatively  few  got  rich,  and  the  public  as  a  whole 
suffered  seriously.  Permanent  industries  and  perman¬ 
ent  homes  were  made  impossible,  and  deserted  villages 
have  marked  the  trail  of  the  industry. 

Today  we  know  better.  We  know  that  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  nation  demands  that  a  forest  should  not  be 
treated  as  a  mine,  but  should  be  so  handled  as  to  make 
it  possible  to  cut  the  same  amount  of  timber  year  after 
year  from  any  given  area.  We  know,  too,  that  for  the 
long-time  investment  which  such  management  involves, 
public  rather  than  private  ownership  will  have  to  be 
relied  on. 

The  work  of  reconstruction  which  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  is  now  undertaking  at  Cross  Fork  points 
the  way  to  what  can  be  done  under  similar  conditions 


122 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


elsewhere.  Above  all,  however,  it  is  imperative  to  pre¬ 
vent  repetitions  of  the  tragedy  in  regions  where  it 
is  not  yet  too  late.  The  attainment  of  both  objects 
lies  in  retaining  and  extending  public  ownership  of 
lands  primarily  valuable  for  forest  production.  Only 
in  an  ownership  which  builds  for  the  future  as  well  as 
for  the  present  can  we  hope  for  the  highest  possible  de¬ 
velopment  of  our  forest  resources  and  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  prosperous,  permanent  forest  communities. 


MALE  PASSENGER  PIGEON 

Shot  October  5,  1890,  by  Jasper  H.  Fincher.  (Photograph  Taken 
December  1,  1918.) 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


MORE  ABOUT  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON 


(From  the  Pennsylvania  Sportsman,  Scranton,  Pa.) 


By  R.  P.  ROBINSON 

Member  of  Wilkes-  Barre  Camp  No.  103. 


Wherein  the  contributor  of  this  third  article  of  our 
series  suggests  that  the  extermination  of  the  passenger 
pigeon  may  have  been  divinely  ordained  as  a  retribution 
for  the  barbarous  methods  employed  in  accomplishing 
their  wholesale  slaughter.  How  our  forefathers  killed 
and  captured  wild  pigeons  is  faithfully  recorded,  and  the 
story  may  fairly  raise  this  question,  beside  pointing  a 
moral  to  the  sportsmen  of  the  present  day. — The  Editor. 
May,  1917. 


HE  American  passenger  pigeon  wintered  in  the 


A  South,  and  in  the  early  spring  migrated  to  the 
northern  part  of  the  United  States  and  Southern 
Canada,  where  it  raised  its  young  and  remained  till 
the  time  for  its  fall  flight  southward. 

I  have  seen  a  continuous  flight  of  these  birds  from 
morning  ’till  night,  and  for  several  days  in  succession. 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  make  any  estimate  as  to  the 
number  passing  a  given  point  in  a  single  day,  but  the 
eminent  American  ornithologist,  Audubon,  once  made 
an  estimate  of  the  number  of  birds  that  was  within 
his  vision  tat  one  time  during  one  of  these  flights,  and 
it  reached  into  the  millions.  No  doubt  this  condition 
prevailed  throughout  a  very  wide  latitude — probably 
several  hundred  miles — for  several  days. 


123 


124 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  passenger  pigeon  was  the  most  rapid  and 
graceful  in  flight  of  any  of  our  wild’  birds.  Its  won¬ 
derful  endurance  and  rapidity  of  flight  are  shown  by 
the  fact  that  it  has  been  killed  in  Canada  with  Caro¬ 
lina  rice  still  in  its  craw,  having  covered  this  distance 
in  a  few  hours  by  continuous  flight. 

In  their  migrations  some  of  the  birds  flew  very 
high  in  the  air — often  almost  beyond  the  vision,  while 
others  flew  so  low  that  they  were  reached  by  the  gun¬ 
ner’s  pellets  fired  from  the  old-fashioned  flintlock 
guns.  The  noise  made  by  their  wings  could  be  heard 
for  a  long  distance.  The  low  fliers  were  the  ones  that 
met  with  disaster  in  attempting  to  pass  through  the 
enemy’s  country — the  settlements  along  the  route  of 
passage. 

The  usual  methods  of  capturing  the  birds  were  by 
shooting  and  by  netting,  although  I  have  known  them 
to  be  killed  in  great  numbers  with  clubs,  and  even 
caught  alive  with  the  hands  at  their  roosting  places  in 
the  low  brush  where  they  were  hunted  with  lanterns 
and  torches.  I  have  seen  the  little  creatures  taken  with 
the  net;  and  while  I  had  no  hand  in  the  sport  (or 
crime),  being  only  a  spectator,  yet  I  felt  somewhat 
guilty  as  an  accessory  before  and  after  the  fact. 

The  pigeon-net  covered  probably  two  or  three  hun¬ 
dred  square  feet  of  ground  when  spread.  It  was 
usually  set  in  an  open  field  on  as  high  ground  as  pos¬ 
sible,  that  the  flying  birds  might  readily  observe  the 
decoys.  To  set  the  net,  one  edge  or  border  was  fast¬ 
ened  to  the  ground  by  stakes  driven  down,  and  the  one 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


125 


opposite  was  secured  to  a  long,  stout  rope  which  was 
stretched  very  tight  between  two  stakes  seventy-five 
or  or  a  hundred  feet  apart,  one  of  them  being  at  the 
“bough-house,”  or  hiding  place  of  the  fowler.  This 
rope  was  drawn  back  to  the  rear  one  and  held  there 
with  latches,  and  the  whole  net  was  also  rolled  back 
to  the  ropes,  leaving  the  entire  bed  free  of  everything 
except  the  stool  pigeon  and  the  stool. 

Grain  was  scattered  over  the  bed  for  the  birds  to 
pick  at  until  they  were  all  settled.  The  bough-house 
was  usually  made  of  pine  boughs  or  small  pine  trees 
stuck  in  the  ground,  completely  hiding  the  fowler  from 
sight,  and  was  large  enough  for  several  persons  to 
stand  in.  By  pulling  a  string  the  latches  were  released 
and  the  rope,  in  assuming  its  direct  position  between 
the  stakes,  instantly  spread  the  net  to  its  full  extent 
over  the  feeding  ground. 

The  decoys  for  enticing  the  birds  to  their  destruc¬ 
tion  were  a  “flier”  and  a  stool  pigeon.  The  flier  was  a 
live  bird  secured'  by  a  long  cord  attached  to  a  leg  and 
when  a  flock  was  seen  in  the  distance  the  bird  was 
bast  from  the  hand.  It  immediately  flew  oflf  to  the 
full  length  of  the  cord,  and  then  slowly  settled  to  the 
ground ;  and  if  the  flying  birds  saw  it  and  made  a 
move  to  approach,  the  stool-pigeon  was  “hovered”  to 
keep  up  the  attraction  until  they  were  brought  to 
the  bed. 

The  stookpigeon  was  a  bird  selected  for  its  good 
points,  and  was  usually  one  that  had  been  kept  from 
the  catch  of  the  previous  migrating  season.  I  have 


126 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


seen  pigeon  houses  containing  many  of  these  birds  in 
confinement  for  use  when  the  season  came. 

The  cruelty  of  this  method  of  procuring  game  birds 
was  partly  in  the  treatment  of  the  stool-pigeon;  the 
poor  bird’s  eyes  being  sewed  shut  to  cause  it  to,  hover 
more  readily.  Why  there  was  not  some  more  humane 
method  of  blindfolding  the  bird  seems  strange  at  this 
day.  A  skin  from  the  head  of  the  bird  could  easily 
have  been  prepared’  for  the  purpose,  and  would  not 
have  been  observed  by  the  other  birds. 

The  stool  to  which  the  pigeon  was  tied  by  the  feet, 
was  a  circular  piece  of  board  six  or  eight  inches  in 
diameter,  fastened  to  a  stick  four  or  five  feet  in  length, 
and  the  opposite  end  was  placed  in  a  slot  in  a  stake, 
thus  forming  a  hinge  so  that  the  bird  could  be  raised 
and  lowered  by  pulling  a  string  running  to  the  fowler’s 
hiding  place.  By  raising  the  bird  and  dropping  it  sud¬ 
denly  it  was  made  to  flutter  as  it  was  going  down ;  and 
the  flying  birds  seeing  it,  would  begin  to  circle  around, 
coming  nearer  and  nearer,  until  they  finally  lit  on  the 
bed  around  the  stool-pigeon.  Then  the  net  would  be 
sprung  over  the  unsuspecting  birds.  At  once  there 
would  be  amass  of  fluttering,  struggling  pigeons, 
with  head's  erect  and  protruding  from  the  meshes  of 
the  net.  The  fowler  and  his  assistants  would,  rush,  to 
the  massacre,  which ’was  the  crushing  of  the  head  o  f 
each  individual  bird  between  the  thumb  and  the  fore¬ 
finger. 

The  shooting  of  the  young  birds  oi  squabs  from 
their  nests  was  another  cruel  and  detestable  practice 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


127 


of  the  pot-hunter  when  the  hatching  grounds  were 
discovered.  This  was  done  when  the  young  birds  were 
about  ready  to  leave  the  nest,  and  many  were  slaught¬ 
ered  at  such  time  by  the  cruel  gunner. 

A  few  years  before  their  final  disappearance  these 
birds  had  their  hatching  ground,  one  season  that  I 
recall,  on  the  North  Mountains  near  the  junction  of 
three  counties  of  Pennsylvania,  viz :  Luzerne,  Sulli¬ 
van  and  Wyoming,  then  a  wilderness  of  virgin  tim¬ 
ber,  and  far  from  the  habitation  of  man.  It  was  not 
far  from  what  is  now  Ricketts’s  station,  on  the  Bow¬ 
man’s  Creek  Branch  of  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad. 
I  passed  through  this  place  soon  after  the  birds  had 
left,  and  saw  scores  of  nests  on  a  single  tree,  and 
every  tree  over  a  large  area  of  the  forest  had  been 
similarly  occupied  by  the  birds. 

Now  there  is  not  a  single  live  passenger  pigeon  in 
North  America,  and  probably  not  in  the  world.  The 
cause  of  their  sudden  disappearance  is  one  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  age.  Could  it  be  that  their  Creator, 
by  some  act  through  nature  pi  evented  their  repro¬ 
duction  as  a  punishment  of  the  people  for  their 
cruelty  in  torturing  and  wantonly  destroying  His 
creatures ;  for  not,  by  the  enactment  of  proper  laws, 
protecting  them  from  the  cruel,  criminal  and  waste¬ 
ful  methods  adopted  for  their  destruction?  If  we 
could  believe  this,  we- might  be  more  earnest  in  our 
efforts  to  conserve  the  wild'  life  that  still  exists  in 
our  fields  and  forests — more  anxious  to  save  from 
extinction  other  species  of  the  feathered  creation. 


128 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Editorial  Comments 

Within  the  memory  of  men  still  living,  countless 
millions  of  wild  pigeons  passed  over  Pennsylvania  in 
their  migratory  flights.  Old  residents  can  recall  the 
time  when  from  horizon  to  horizon  flying  birds  were 
seen  in  flocks  so  large  and  so  compact  as  to  obscure  the 
sun.  Fifty  years  ago  wild  pigeons  were  still  common 
game  birds,  and  thousands  of  them  could  be  observed 
in  their  seasonal  flights,  but  today  it  is  admitted  that 
the  last  passenger  pigeon  in  the  world,  so  far  as  is 
known,  died  in  the  Cincinnati  Zoo  during  the  fall 
of  1914. 

Large  rewards  were  offered  for  a  mate  for  the  last 
wild  pigeon  in  the  hope  that  the  species  might  be 
saved  from  total  extermination.  But  not  one  could 
be  found.  And  in  order  that  the  bird  might  be  proper¬ 
ly  mounted  upon  its  death,  the  keeper  carefully  saved 
the  feathers  dropped  each  year  for  the  taxidermist. 
So  the  bird  has  been  preserved — by  taxidermy — but 
the  species  is  now  totally  extinct. 

Lest  sportsmen  of  the  present  day  forget  the  wild 
pigeon,  we  deem  it  proper  to  quote  from  a  chapter  of 
“The  Pioneers,”  James  Fenimore  Cooper’s  first  pub¬ 
lished  Leather  Stocking  Tale,  which  appeared  in  print 
ninety-five  years  ago.  It  is  a  delightful  story  of 
fascinating  interest  to  sportsmen.  Moreover,  it  is 
historically  correct  as  to  scenes  and  circumstances, 
although  some  of  the  characters  are  undoubtedly  ficti¬ 
tious.  In  the  person  of  Leather  Stocking,  otherwise 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


129 


called  “Natty,”  we  recognize  the  spirit  of  a  true  sports¬ 
man  of  modern  times.  Billy  Kirby  and  Richard  typi¬ 
fy  the  pot-hunter  and  game  hog,  whose  descendents 
still  range  at  large  in  Pennsylvania  after  nearly  one 
hundred  years  of  protest  against  their  practices. 

Chapter  twenty-two  is  particularly  of  interest  to 
sportsmen  for  it  relates  the  circumstances  of  a  wild- 
pigeon  flight  a  century  ago.  Vividly  Cooper  describes 
the  incidents  of  the  pigeon  slaughter  and  the  methods 
employed  in  that  day.  The  scene  is  along  the  head¬ 
waters  of  the  Susquehanna  river  in  New  York  state. 
The  events  described,  however,  as  correctly  show  the 
practices  of  early  Pennsylvania  hunters  as  they  do 
those  followed  at  that  time  in  New  York.  How 
thoughtless  were  the  hunters  of  that  day !  The  chap¬ 
ter  is  too  long  to  reprint  in  its  entirety,  but  the  fol1 
lowing  paragraphs,  with  some  abbreviation,  tell  the 
tale  of  long  ago.  And  we  believe  it  will  be  appreciated 
by  the  true  sportsmen.  If  it  engages  the  attention  of 
any  others  who  do  not  exercise  restraint  in  hunting 
such  of  our  game  birds  as  still  remain,  we  commend  for 
their  particular  study  the  sage  observations  of  Leath¬ 
er  Stocking. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


‘THE  PIONEERS” 

(Abridged) 

$40 EE,  Cousin  Bess!  See,  Duke,  the  pigeon-roosts 
of  the  South  have  broken  up!  They  are  grow¬ 
ing  more  thick  every  instant.  Here  is  a  flock 
that  the  eye  cannot  see  the  end  of.  There  is  food 
enough  in  it  to  keep  the  army  of  Xerxes  for  a  month, 
and  feathers  enough  to  make  beds  for  the  whole  coun¬ 
try.  Xerxes,  Mr.  Edward,  was  a  Grecian  king,  who — 
no,  he  was  a  Turk,  or  a  Persian,  who  wanted  to  con¬ 
quer  Greece,  just  the  same  as  these  rascals  will  over¬ 
run  our  wheat  fields,  when  they  come  back  in  the  fall. 
Away!  Away!  Bess,  I  long  to  pepper  them.”' 

“If  the  heavens  were  alive  with  pigeons,  the  whole 
village  seemed  equally  in  motion,  with  men,  women 
and  children.  Every  species  of  fire-arms,  from  the 
French  ducking-gun  with  a  barrel  near  six  feet  in 
length,  to  the  common  horseman’s  pistol,  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  hands  of  the  men  and  boys ;  while  bows 
and  arrows,  some  made  of  the  simple  stick  of  watn  it 
sapling,  and  others  in  the  rude  imitation  of  the  ancient 
cross-bows,  were  carried  by  many  of  the  latter. 

“The  houses  and  signs  of  life  apparent  in  the  vil¬ 
lage,  drove  the  alarmed  birds  from  the  direct  line  of 
their  flight,  toward  the  mountains,  along  the  sides  and 
near  the  bases  of  which  they  were  glancing  in  dense 


130 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


131 


masses,  equally  wonderful  by  the  rapidity  of  their  mo¬ 
tion,  and  their  incredible  numbers. 

“Among  the  sportsmen  was  the  tall,  gaunt  form 
of  Leather-Stocking  walking  over  the  field,  with  his 
rifle  hanging  on  his  arm,  his  dogs  at  his  heels ;  the 
latter  now  scenting  the  dead  or  wounded  birds,  that 
were  beginning  to  tumble  from  the  flocks,  and  then 
crouching  under  the  legs  of  their  master,  as  if  they 
participated  in  his  feelings  at  this  wasteful  and  un¬ 
sportsmanlike  execution. 

“The  reports  of  the  fire-arms  became  rapid,  whole 
volleys  rising  from  the  plain,  as  flocks  of  more  than 
ordinary  numbers  darted  over  the  opening,  shadowing 
the  field  like  a  cloud — arrows ^  and  missiles  of  every 
kind  were  in  the  midst  of  the  flocks ;  and  so  numerous 
were  the  birds,  and  so  low  did  they  take  their  flight,  that 
even  long  poles,  in  the  hands  of  those  on  the  sides  of 
the  mountain,  were  used  to  strike  them  to -the  earth. 

“During  all  this  time  Mr  Jones,  who  disdained 
the  humble  and  ordinary  means  of  destructions  used 
by  his  companions,  was  busily  occupied,  aided  by 
Benjamin,  in  making  arrangements  for  an  assault  of 
more  than  ordinarily  fatal  character.  There  had  been 
found,  at  Templeton,  at  its  settlement,  a  small  swivel, 
which  would'  carry  a  ball  of  a  pound  weight.  It  was 
thought  to  have  been  deserted  by  a  war  party  of 
whites,  in  one  of  their  inroads  into  the  Indian  settle¬ 
ments.  It  was  somewhat  the  worse  for  the  service 
it  had  performed,  it  is  true,  there  being  but  a  trifle 
difference  in  size,  between  the  touch-hole  and  the  muz- 


132 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


zle.  Still,  the  grand  conceptions  of  Richard  had  sug¬ 
gested  the  importance  of  such  an  instruments  in 
hurling  death  at  his  nimble  enemies.  The  swivel  was 
dragged  by  a  horse  into  a  part  of  the  open  space  that 
the  Sheriff  thought  most  eligible  for  planting  a  bat¬ 
tery  of  the  kind,  and  Mr.  Pump  proceeded  to  load'  it. 

“Leather  Stocking  was  a  silent,  but  uneasy  spec¬ 
tator  of  all  these  proceedings,  but  was  able  to  keep 
his  sentiments  to  himself  until  he  saw  the  introduc' 
tion  of  the  swivel  into  the  sports. 

“This  comes  of  settling  a  country !”  he  said.  “Here 
have  I  known  the  pigeons  to  fly  for  forty  long  years, 
and,  till  you  made  your  clearings,  there  was  nobody 
to  scare  or  to  hurt  them.  I  loved  to  see  them  in  the 
woods,  for  they  were  company  to  a  body,  hurting 
nothing;  being,  as  it  was,  as  harmless  as  a  garter- 
snake.  But  now  it  gives  me  sore  thoughts  when  I 
hear  the  frighty  things  whizzing  through  the  air,  for 
1  know  its  only  a  motion  to  bring  out  all  the  brats  of 
the  village.  Well!  the  Lord  won’t  see  the  waste  of 
his  creatures  for  nothing,  and  right  will  be  done  to 
the  pigeons,  as  well  as  others  by  and  by.” 

“Thou  sayest  well,  Leather  Stocking,”  cried  Mar- 
maduke,  “and  I  begin  to  think  it  time  to  put  an  end 
to  this  work  of  destruction. 

“Put  an  end,  Judge,  to  your  clearings.  Ain’t  the 
woods  His  work  as  well  as  the  pigeons?  Use,  but 
don’t  waste.  Wasn’t  the  woods  made  for  the  beasts 
and  birds  to  harbor  in?  And  when  man  wanted  their 
flesh,  their  skins,  or  their  feathers,  there’s  the  place 


OFFICER  JASPER  H.  FINCHER 
(Photograph  by  Shem'pp  Studio,  Williamsport,  Pa.) 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


133 


to  seek  them.  But  I’ll  go  to  the  hut  with  my  own 
game,  for  I  wouldn’t  touch  one  of  the  harmless 
things  that  cover  the  ground  here,  looking  up  with 
their  eyes  to  me,  as  if  they  only  wanted  tongues  to 
say  their  thoughts.” 

“With  this  sentiment  in  his  mouth,  Leather  Stock¬ 
ing  threw  his  rifle  over  his  arm,  and  followed  by  his 
dogs  stepped'  across  the  clearing  with  great  caution, 
taking  care  not  to  tread  on  one  of  the  wounded  birds 
in  his  path.  He  soon  entered  the  bushes  on  the  mar¬ 
gin  of  the  lake,  and  was  hid  from  view. 

“Whatever  impression  the  morality  of  Natty  made 
on  the  Judge,  it  was  utterly  lost  on  Richard.  He 
availed  himself  of  the  gathering  of  sportsmen,  to  lay 
a  plan  for  one  fell  swoop  of  destruction.  The  musket 
men  were  drawn  up  in  battle  array,  in  a  line  extend¬ 
ing  on  each  side  of  his  artillery,  with  orders  to  await 
the  signal  of  firing  from  himself. 

“Some  millions  of  pigeons  were  supposed  to  have 
already  passed',  that  morning,  over  the  valley  of  Tem¬ 
pleton,  but  nothing  like  the  flock  that  was  now 
approaching  had  been  seen  before.  It  extended 
from  mountain  to  mountain  in  one  solid  blue  mass, 
and  the  eye  looked  in  vain  over  the  southern  hills,  to 
find  its  termination.  The  front  of  this  living  column 
was  distinctly  marked  by  a  line  but  very  slightly 
indented,  so  regular  and  even  was  the  flight.  Even 
Marmaduke  forgot  the  morality  of  Leather  Stocking 
as  it  approached,  and,  in  common  with  the  rest, 
brought  his  musket  to  a  poise. 


134  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


“Fire !”  cried'  the  Sheriff,  clapping  a  coal  to  the 
priming  of  the  cannon.  As  half  of  Benjamin’s  charge 
escaped  through  the  touch-hole,  the  whole  volley  of 
the  musketry  preceded  the  report  of  the  swivel.  On 
receiving  this  united  discharge  of  small-arms,  the  front 
of  the  flock  darted  upwards,  while  at  the  same  instant 
myriads  of  those  in  the  rear  rushed  with  amazing 
rapidity  into  their  places,  so  that  when  the  column  of 
white  smoke  gushed  from  the  mouth  of  the  cannon, 
an  accumulated  mass  of  objects  was  gliding  over  its 
point  of  direction.  The  roar  of  the  gun  echoed  along 
the  mountains,  and  died  away  to  the  north,  like  distant 
thunder,  while  the  whole  flock  of  alarmed  birds 
seemed,  for  a  moment,  thrown  into  one  disorderly 
and  agitated  mass.  (Then  they  collected  the  dead 
birds  and  everybody  joined  in  the  feasting.) 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  BINGHAM  ESTATE 


Story  of  the  Original  Owners  of  Large  Tracts  of 

Land  in  Potter  and  Adjoining  Counties. 

Written  by  M.  J.  Colcord,  Editor,  1916 
('From  the  Potter  County  Journal) 

WHOEVER  has  had  to  deal  with  land  titles  in 
Potter  county  has  surely  become  familiar  with 
the  name  of  Bingham,  as  the  title  to  most  of  the  land 
is  traced  back  to  the  “Bingham  Estate”  in  northern 
and  western  Potter.  No  doubt  many  who  own  such 
land  today  have  little  knowledge  of  the  original  owners 
of  what  was  mostly  a  dense  forest  but  little  over  a  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago. 

Mr.  A.  B.  Mann,  whose  knowledge  of  early  titles  is 
probably  as  good  as  any  man  in  the  County,  has  an 
exemplification  of  some  deeds  made  in  1796  for  249,000 
acres  in  what  was  then  Lycoming  county,  from  William 
Bingham  to  parties  who  finally  conveyed  to  John  Keat¬ 
ing  and  others,  trustees,  of  which  grantees,  one  was 
John  S.  Roulet  (notice  the  spelling)  after  whom  Rou- 
let  township  was  named.  So  it  seems  that  most  of 
Potter  county  landtitles  trace  back  to  William  Bing¬ 
ham.  He  derived  title  from  stat'e  patents  and  deeds 
from  William  Willing. 


135 


136 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  Bradford  Star  of  recent  date  throws  some 
light  on  this  topic,  in  connection  with  the  income  petro¬ 
leum  is  still  yielding  to  the  Bingham  heirs.  Quoting 
the  Public  Ledger  for  the  text,  The  Star  says : 

Girard,  who  conducts  an  interesting  column  of  gos¬ 
sip  and  comment  in  the  Public  Ledger  Daily,  has 
something  to  say  of  the  Bingham  estate  which  lies 
upon  the  big  level  between  here  and  the  county  seat 
and  which  has  enriched  individuals  and  companies  in 
the  past  forty  years  with  its  great  stores  of  petroleum. 

Girard  says :  "‘William  Bingham  was  one  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania’s  early  United  States  senators,  and  he  mar¬ 
ried  a  daughter  of  Thomas  Willing.  Here  was  a 
combination  of  great  wealth,  civic  and  political  leader¬ 
ship  and  social  prestige. 

“Bingham’s  daughter  became  the  wife  of  Mr.  Bar¬ 
ing  of  England — the  Lord  Ashburton  of  treaty  fame 
— and  in  that  way  the  celebrated  family  of  London 
bankers  became  large  owners  of  land  in  northern  and 
northwestern  Pennsylvania. 

Effingham  B.  Morris,  who,  with  John  G.  Johnson, 
is  trustee  of  the  William  Bingham  estate,  tells  me  that 
his  decendants  still  own  some  land  in  Pennsylvania. 
The  Barings  were  lucky  enough  to  have  thousands  of 
acres  in  the  oil  region,  and  Keystone  state  petroleum 
was  a  tidy  thing  to  own  around  1890,  when  the  Bar¬ 
ing  Brothers’  failure  shook  the  whole  financial  world. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


137 


“Bingham  also  owned  three  million  acres  along 
the  cost  of  Maine.  This  included  Mount  Desert,  and 
this  was  apparently  so  valueless  that  for  years  the 
heirs  could  not  sell  it  at  any  price.” 

Oil  operators  on  the  Bingham  estate,  it  is  said,  have 
found  it  impossible  to  buy  any  of  the  Bingham  lands, 
and  the  Bingham  estate  never  operated  on  any  of  the 
Bingham  lands,  contenting  themselves  with  the 
royalties  thereon  which  have  been  sufficient  to 
pay  the  estate  millions  of  dollars,  all  of  which,  it  is  said, 
has  found  its  way  to  England.  The  agent  of  the  es¬ 
tate,  with  whom  local  operators  do  business  is  Frank 
A.  Deans,  attorney-in-fact,  located  in  YVellsboro.  Just 
who  the  Binghams  were  has  always  been  a  mystery  to 
most  people  here,  although  the  Bingham  estate  is  as 
v/ell  known  as  any  oil  property  in  the  whole  Bradford 
field. 

Mr.  Girard’s  story  of  William  Bingham  and  his 
heirs  will  be  news  to  most  readers  w'ho  never  took  the 
trouble  to  look  up  the  history  of  the  family  that  has 
profited  so  largely  by  their  good  fortune  in  being  the 
possessor  of  rich  oil  land  which  most  of  the  heirs  have 
never  seen.  The  land  cost  William  Bingham  13  cents 
an  acre. 

(The  tract  of  249,000  acres,  about  a  third  of  Potter 
county,  was  the  Ceres  Company’s  principal  tract.  John 
Keating  was  managing  trustee.  Francis  King  was  his 
agent.) 


138 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Indian  Supervision  of  a  Game  Preserve — The  Gar¬ 
den  of  Manitto 

(By  John  C.  (French) 

The  forests  along  the  springs,  brooks  and  rivulets 
that  constitute  the  Allegheny  river  sources,  were  a  sort 
of  wild  game  preserve  of  the  Seneca  Indian  nation, 
from  about  1600,  when  they  began  to  occupy  the  re¬ 
gion  and  had  a  principal  town — Tununguam — ten  miles 
below  Olean,  New  York,  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Allegheny,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Tuna  Gwant 
creek,  which  flows  from  the  highlands  near  Mount  Al¬ 
ton,  McKean  County,  Pennsylvania,  past  the  city  of 
Bradford.  The  Kinzua  creek  rises  near  Mt.  Alton 
and  flows  westward  about  thirty  miles  to  the  river, 
forty  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Tuna  Gwant.  These 
valleys  were  then  a  hunter’s  paradise,  and  the  upper 
Allegheny  was  Manitto’s  garden.  . 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Geo.  P.  Donehoo,  the  historian,  spoke 
at  Coudersport,  in  October,  1916,  at  the  dedication  of 
a  boulder  to  commemorate  the  trip  of  David  Zeisberg- 
er,  Moravian  Missionary,  through  Potter  county  in 
1767,  at  which  time  he  camped  near  the  river  at  Coud¬ 
ersport,  on  October  8,  1767,  and  continued  his  jour¬ 
ney,  down  the  Allegheny,  being  the  first  white  man 
permitted  to  penetrate  and  pass  through  that  region, 
telling  at  length  how  strictly  Indian  sentinals  guarded 
every  trail  that  led  into  the  sacred  breeding  ground 
they  protected  from  trespassers  and  desecration.  That 
C.  F.  Post  and  his  Indian  guide,  in  1760,  had  sought 
permission  to  pass  from  the  Cowanesque  river  to  the 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


139 


Allegheny;  but  they  had  been  turned  back  at  Passi- 
gachkung,  near  Knoxville,  in  Tioga  county,  and  re¬ 
turned  to  Bethlehem,  to  go  from  there  over  the  south¬ 
ern  trail  to  the  West. 

The  history  of  Indian  supervision  of  the  region  was 
told  to  the  writer,  many  years  ago,  by  the  Senecas 
themselves,  Capt.  John  Titus,  King  Jimmerson,  Jun¬ 
ior,  Thomas  Scrogg  and  Andrew  John,  Junior,  when 
engaged  in  hemlock  lumber  operations,  on  lands  ad¬ 
joining  the  Allegheny  Reservation,  on  its  South  bor¬ 
der,  which  made  it  necessary  to  negotiate  with  the 
Senecas  for  roads,  skidways,  banking  grounds  for 
logs;  and  for  millsites  and  lumber  yards  upon  their 
lands. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


ROMANCES  OF  AN  OLD  FOREST  ROAD— 
ONCE  USED  BY  MARQUIS  DE  LAFAYETTE 

(The  First  Natural  Gas  V^ell) 

(By  JOHN  C.  FRENCH.) 

IN  1824,  the  party  that  started  from  Philadelphia, 
by  train  of  coaches,  horses  and  packmules,  cross¬ 
ed  the  Susquehanna  and  soon  entered  the  forest  along 
the  West  Branch,  to  view  the  beautiful  highlands  oft 
Pennsylvania.  They  passed  through  McKean  County, 
along  the  new-made  forest  road,  over  the  ridges  and 
westward  through  Hamlin  township,  and  northerly 
through  Lafayette  township,  crossing  the  Kinzua  Val¬ 
ley  five  miles  west  of, the  great  viaduct  of  the  Erie 
railroad,  and  climbing  to  the  crest  of  the  range  be¬ 
yond,  near  Marshburg;  thence  through  Hamilton 
township,  past  the  oil-field  “Klondike,”  of  recent  de¬ 
cades,  and  westerly,  down  the  backbone  ridge,  to  the 
Kinzua  Village  on  the  Allegheny  river,  at  the  con¬ 
fluence  of  Kinzua  creek  and  the  river ;  thence  norther¬ 
ly  to  lake  Chautauqua,  and  to  Fredonia,  New  York, 
near  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  where  the  hotel  was  lit 
by  natural  gas,  from  the  well  bored  in  1821. 

The  trip  was  for  entertainment  of  the  great  French¬ 
man  and  to  endow  him  with  the  land  that  bears  his 
name,  in  the  midst  of  the  rich  oil  and  gas  fields  that 
developed  later,  1880-1910,  and  the  forest  road  was 


140 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


141 


built  for  that  trip,  alone,  and  seldom  made  use  of 
afterward,  except  for  short  distances,  here  and  there. 
The  Christian  Science  Monitor,  of  Boston,  recently 
told  the  story,  as  follows : 

Marie  Paul  Jean  Roch  Yves  Gilbert  Motier,  the 
Marquis  de  Lafayette,  paid  three  visits  to  America, 
the  first  in  1777,  the  second  in  1784,  and  the  third  in 
1824.  Thus,  nearly  half  a  century  intervened  between 
the  times  of  his  first  and  last  arrival.  Great  changes 
had  taken  place  in  the  interval  of  forty-seven  years. 
George  Washington,  his  almost  idolized  commoner 
was  no  longer  here  to  welcome  him.  Adams,  Jeffer¬ 
son  and  Madison,  who  had  been  numbered  among  his 
intimates  in  the  old  days,  had  each  in  turn,  served  in 
the  chief  magistracy  of  the  young  republic  which  he 
had  helped  to  found.  The  war  of  1812  had  become 
merely  an  unpleasant  memory.  The  great  disturbing 
human  factor  of  the  period  had  at  length  been  quieted 
on  the  lone  island  of  St.  Helena. 

France  was  in  a  stage  of  transition;  the  revolution 
of  1830  was  six  years  off.  James  Monroe,  who  was 
in  the  battle  of  Brandywine  with  Lafayette,  was  now 
President  of  the  United  States.  The  area  of  the  na¬ 
tion  had  been  broadened  by  the  acquisition  of  Louisi¬ 
ana  and  of  other  territory.  The  number  of  the  states 
had  nearly  doubled  since  the  Revolution.  Settlements 
and  villages  were  dotting  those  parts  of  the  country 
that  were  unpeopled  when  Lafayette  was  a  young 
man ;  hamlets  had  become  towns ;  towns  had  become 
cities ;  cities  had  grown  to  amazing  proportions ;  Wash- 


142 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


ington  had  been  founded  and  partly  built,  and  the  na¬ 
tional  capital  had  been  moved  there  from  Philadelphia. 
The  years  had  had  their  tragedies :  Hamilton  had  fall¬ 
en  at  the  hands  of  Burr,  and  Burr’s  unbridled  ambition 
had  been  his  own  undoing;  Dorothy  Payne,  after  be¬ 
coming  Mrs.  Todd  had  become  Dolly  Madison,  and 
had  reigned  through  Jefferson’s  and  her  husband’s  ad¬ 
ministrations.  She  was  no  longer  First  Lady  of  the 
Land,  but  she  still  held  her  place  as  “Queen  of  Ameri¬ 
can  Society.”. 

A  new  generation  had  come  upon  the  scene.  New 
leaders  claimed  popular  atention  and  interest.  Some 
of  them  were  exceptionally  able  men.  There  were, 
for  instance,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Randolph  and  Webster. 
Lafayette  was  to  lay  the  corner  stone  of  Bunker  Hill 
Monument,  and  to  hear  the  great  New  Englander  de¬ 
liver,  on  that  occasion,  one  of  his  finest  orations. 

The  reception  of  Lafayette,  on  his  last  visit,  was 
as  spontaneously  enthusiastic  as  that  which  Joffre  and 
Viviani  are  receiving  today.  New  York  was  com¬ 
paratively  small  then,  but  it  seemed  to  witnesses  of 
the  scene  at  the  Battery,  that  when  the  guest  of  the  na¬ 
tion  arrived  the  whole  population  was  there  to  welcome 
him.  The  city  was  decorated,  much  as  it  has  been 
with  a  great  display  of  bunting,  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
and  the  Tricolor  being  everywhere  intertwined.  The 
landing  initiated  a  series  of  ovations  which  extended 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country.  Lafayette, 
in  response  to  popular  demands,  made  a  tour  through 
the  twenty-four  states  then  in  the  Union,  covering  al- 


JAMES  V.  BENNETT 

Famous  Pigeoneer,  Now  a  Leader  in  Business  and  Financial 
Circles,  Williamsport,  Pa. 


T£LE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


143 


together  5,000  miles.  His  reception  in  Boston,  Balti¬ 
more,  Philadelphia  and  other  of  the  larger  communi¬ 
ties,  was  correspondingly  as  enthusiastic  as  that  in 
New  York.  In  New  England,  boys  and  girls  strewed 
flowers  in  his  path.  He  went  into  the  small  as  well  as 
the  large  towns.  He  was  recived  with  special  honors  by 
the  President,  with  special  distinction  by  Congress.  He 
was  presented  with  a  purse  containing  $200,000,  and 
with  a  township  of  land.  He  was  lionized  socially. 
From  the  moment  of  his  arrival  to  the  moment  of  his 
departure  he  was  the  recipient  of  every  thoughtful  and 
delicate  attention. 

Early  in  his  visit  he  went  to  Mount  Vernon  and 
paid  tribute  to  Washington.  He  dedicated  a  monu¬ 
ment  to  Baron  DeKalb  at  Camden,  S.  C.,  and  par¬ 
ticipated  actively  in  many  other  functions.  Those 
were  still  coaching  days,  and  Lafayette  was  continually 
in  demand  at  country  homes.  This  will  partly  explain 
the  number  of  chambers  and  beds  in  which  he  slept 
that  are  still  be  be  found  along  the  route  of  his  travels. 
Whenever  possible,  the  chambers  and  the  bedsteads' 
were  preserved.  Rooms  in  which  Lafayette  slept, 
beds  upon  which  he  reposed,  are  very  plentiful  in  New 
England  today.  Probably  most  of  them  are  genuine. 
One  likes  to  think  they  are. 

The  Bunker  Hill  Monument  cornerstone  laying 
brought  people  from  all  parts.  One  account  says  that 
'■'everything  on  wheels  and  everything  that  had  legs” 
moved  toward  the  historic  high  ground  in  Charlestown 
on  that  day.  Webster  was  at  his  best.  Lafayette 


144 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


met  and  greeted  many  survivors  of  the  battle.  When1 
he  arose  to  perform  his  part  of  the  ceremony  the  en¬ 
thusiasm  knew  no  bounds.  He  stood  silent  for.  minutes 
before  the  mass  of  cheering  people.  Tears  coursed 
down  his  cheeks.  Here  was  the  apotheosis  toward 
which  all  previous  manifestations  of  appreciation  and 
gratitude  had  been  tending. — Christian  Science  Mon¬ 
itor. 

About  the  old  forest  road  there  was  ever  much 
speculation  by  modern  nimrods, fishermen  and  campers, 
who  chanced  to  follow  it  a  short  distance,  through  a 
forest  that  was  primeval,  previous  to  1890,  and  many 
explanations  of  the  cause  for  it ;  some  said  Alexander 
McClain  built  it  in  1788,  when  the  surveys  of  the  land 
were  first  made  to  establish  certain  transit  lines,  by 
“monuments  on  the  land,”  from  which  to  make  maps 
and  locate  the  streams  upon  certain  sections,  or  war¬ 
rants,  as  plotted  on  the  maps,  and  given  numbers,  as 
sold. 

Some  called  it  the  “Boone  Road,”  and  believed  that 
emigrants  to  Kentucky,  soon  after  the  Revolution,  had 
constructed  it  to  descend  the  Allegheny  upon  timber 
rafts,  and  in  canoes,  from  Kinzua ;  and  some  called 
ir  “The  French  Road,”  giving  its  origin  a  military  bias, 
with  the  explanation  that,  during  the  French  and  In¬ 
dian  war,  between  1755  and  1763,  the  French  soldiers, 
scouts  and  voyagers  had  cut  a  road,  to  secure  supplies 
over,  from  Frenchville  and  other  Pennsylvania  towns, 
to  support  the  occupation  near  Lake  Erie,  during 
winters  when  the  lake  was  closed. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


145 


But  the  version  of  certain  old  men,  dwelling  in  La¬ 
fayette  township  and  vicinity,  in  1889,  gave  it  as  out¬ 
lined  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  which  the  writer 
beleved  then ;  and  has.  found  no  records  that  dispute  it. 
Ordinary  histories  give  few  details  of  the  great  forest 
pageants,  of  our  earlier  times,  while  often  giving  great 
space  to  unimportant  occurrences,  along^  the  seaboard 
and  within  our  great  cities.  It  is  difficult,  now,  to 
decide  definitely,  as  to  the  uses  of  the  road,  here  men¬ 
tioned,  and  all  of  the  tales  of  it  may  have  been  found¬ 
ed  upon  facts,  in  each  case ;  for  each  purpose,  it  may 
have  been  used.  Westward  voyagers,  in  1788,  made 
canoes  near  Port  Allegheny,  Canoe  Place,  and  descend¬ 
ed  the  river.  They  traveled  up  the  Sinnemahoning, 
over  the  divide,  and  down  Portage  Creek,  to  “Canoe 
Place.”  ’ 


CHAPTER  XXII 


THE  INDIAN  MARATHON— MARCH  OF  CAP¬ 
TAIN  TITUS 

(From  Olean  Evening  Times,  by  JOHN  C.  FRENCH.) 

ON  July  25,  1881,  at  Carrollton,  N.  Y.,  on  The 
Seneca  Indians’  Allegany  river  reservation,  the 
venerable  Capt.  John  Titus,  a  Seneca  chieftain,  sitting 
in  an  arm  chair  on  the  shady  porch  of  John  Maroney’s 
hotel,  told  the  writer  the  story  of  the  great  march  made 
by  himself  at  the  head  of  100  Seneca  youths,  from  Kill 
Buck’s  town,  near  Salamanca,  to  Big  Tree,  near  Lake 
Erie  and  West  Seneca,  and  thence  by  batteaux  and 
canoes  across  the  foot  of  the  lake  and  down  the  Ni¬ 
agara  river  to  the  beginning  of  the  rapids,  and  a  forced 
march  of  two  miles  to  the  battle  line  of  Lundy’s  Lane, 
between  dawn  and  sunset  of  July  25,  1814 — the  Amer¬ 
ican  marathon  race  of  80  miles  to  help  the  weary  2,000 
Americans  win  the  day  against  about  4,500  British 
soldiers  and  Indian  scouts. 

Seneca  John  Titus  was  born  in  1784  and  at  the  age 
of  97  years  was  erect  and  strong,  as  is  usually  the  case 
at  70  years,  and  over  six  feet  tall.  In  his  youth  he 
was  taught  to  read  and  the  tactics  of  scouting  for  an 
army  by  the  veteran  John  Gideon  Martin,  scout  of; 
Oriskany,  who  visited  Ceres,  N.  Y.,  in  1798,  to  pro¬ 
test  against  the  improvements,  begun  by  Francis  King 
at  that  time,  on  King’s  Run,  south  of  the  state  line, 
for  the  Ceres  Company  which  had  received  title  from 


146 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


147 


William  Bingham  of  Philadelphia  to  nearly  300,000 
acres  of  forest  land  in  the  counties  of  Potter  and  Mc¬ 
Kean  in  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  King  was  the  agent  for 
John  Keating,  the  managing  trustee  of  the  corpora¬ 
tion — The  Ceres  Company. 

The  Susquehanna  Company  claimed  to  own  the 
land  from  the  Conewango,  at  Warren,  Pa.,  to  the  Sus¬ 
quehanna,  between  the  40th  degree  of  latitude  and 
the  New  York  line,  under  a  grant  from  Connecticut 
which  claimed  all  north  of  the  40th  parallel,  in  Penn¬ 
sylvania.  Mr.  Martin  represented  the  Connecticut 
claimants  and  spent  much  time  in  the  forest,  taking 
the  Indian  boy  with  him  for  a  year  or  two  before  1800, 
when  the  .courts  finally  disposed  of  the  matter  that  had 
caused  the  “Yankee-Pennamite  War”  for  more  than 
half  a  century. 

From  April  to  July  of  1814,  Gen.  Winfield  Scott  es¬ 
tablished,  near  Buffalo,  a  camp  of  instruction  and  drill¬ 
ed  his  raw  levies  in  the  French  tactics  with  such  effect 
that  on  July  3d  they  took  Fort  Erie,  opposite  Buffalo, 
by  assault;  and  on  July  5th,  fought  the  drawn  bat¬ 
tle  at  Chippewa  in  Ontario.  Young  John  Titus  had 
been  at  the  camp  for  training  and  he  served  as  chief 
of  scouts  at  the  two  battles  with  such  credit  that  Gen¬ 
eral  Scott  sent  him  to  the  Seneca  reservations  to  select 
and  train  100  Indian  athletes  and  runners  for  service  in 
Canada.  On  July  24,  1814,  a  runner  brought  an  order 
to  Titus  that  a  battle  was  imminent  and  ordering  him 
to  report  at  Fort  Erie  with  his  company  of  scouts  in 
the  shortest  possible  elapse  of  time. 


148 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


A  messenger,  sent  to  Cattauragus,  took  command 
of  the  contingent  from  there.  Another  runner,  dis¬ 
patched  at  once  by  Titus,  told  the  commandant  at 
Fort  Erie  that  the  Indian  boys  would  be  at  Big  Tree, 
near  Lake  Erie,  at  5  o’clock,  on  July  25th,  ready  for 
boats,  arms  and  ammunition.  The  boats  were  sent, 
with  food,  arms  and  military  jackets  for  the  boys, 
Sixty  Indians  went  with  Captain  Titus  by  boats  to 
Niagara  Falls  and  joined  the  fight  at  sunset.  Attached 
to  the  command  of  Col.  James  Miller,  as  scouts,  the  In¬ 
dian  boys  crept  through  brush  and  weeds  to  the  fence, 
near  the  British  center,  and  poking  their  guns  between 
the  rails-,  in  the  dusk,  waited  for  their  opportunity  to 
rush  upon  the  men  who  served  the  seven  cannon  upon 
the  little  eminence  within  sound  of  the  cataract. 

There  was  a  lively  attack  by  Col.  Miller  and  his 
regulars ;  the  cannon  were  trained  on  the  soldiers ; 
the  Indians  waited,  forgotten  by  everyone ;  night  had 
closed  in  and  the  battle  was  ending  for  the  night ;  an¬ 
other  discharge  of  the  battery  would  enable  the  British 
to  rush  the  Yankees  back  to  the  Chippewa;  the  guns 
were  primed  for  the  last  shots  needed ;  the  gunners 
lighted  their  matches,  holding  them  for  the  order, 
“Fire !”  It  never  came.  The  Indian  scouts  aimed 
at  the  lights ;  Captain  Titus  whispered  a  hissing  order, 
“Quisheeh,”  their  fingers  pressed  the  triggers ;  the 
guns  lighted  up  the  dark  band  of  brush  along  the  fence ; 
the  Canadian  gunners  fell  as  the  Seneca  war-cry  rose 
above  the  din  and  roar  of  battle,  and  Miller  carried  the 
height. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


149 

Ancient  Indian  Ceremonies,  Customs  and  Wonders 

(IBy  John  ,C.  French) 

It  is  frequently  of  benefit  and  interest  to  us  to  re¬ 
view  what  the  earliest  white  visitors  to  the  great  Alle¬ 
gheny  forest  said  of  the  redmen  they  met  and  the  won¬ 
ders  they  were  shown  by  the  enthusiastic  Indians.  A 
letter  dated,  1629,  and  published  in  Sagard’s  “Historie 
du  Canada/’  1632,  describes  a  visit  to  the  Senecas, 
1627,  by  the  Franciscan,  Joseph  d’ Allion  to  the  oil 
spring,  near  Hinsdale,  New  York,  “Ischua,”  shown  to 
him  by  the  Indians,  the  name  is  equivalent  to,  “Oil- 
place”  or  “Plenty-oil-here.”  The  oil  was  collected  by 
the  Indians  and  used  as  a  liniment  in  treating  sprains, 
frost-bite  and  rheumatism  and  internally,  for  colds 
and  bronchial  inflammations ;  and  “to  destroy  the  ser¬ 
pent  within,  that  causes  fever  and  chills.” 

The  writer  saw  the  ceremonies  at  the  oil  gathering 
of  1881 ;  and  in  1883;  Mr.  Ashburner,  a  Pennsylvania 
geologist  visited  Cuba,  New  York,  and  saw  the  pro¬ 
ceedings,  which  he  described  to  Professor  Silliman, 
in  words,  as  follows : 

“The  oil  spring,  or  fountain,  rises  in  the  midst  of 
marshy  ground ;  it  is  a  muddy  and  dirty  pool  of  about 
18  feet  in  diameter.  The  water  is  covered  with  a  thin 
layer  of  petroleum,  giving  it  a  foul  appearance  as  if 
coated  with  dirty  molasses,  having  a  yellowish-brown 
color.  They  collect  the  petroleum  by  skimming  it  like 
cream  from  a  milk  pan.  For  this  purpose  they  use  a 
broad  flat  board,  made  thin  at  one  edge  like  a  knife. 
It  is  moved  flat  upon  and  just  under  the  surface  of  the 
water,  and  is  soon  covered  by  a  thin  coating  of  the  pe- 


150 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


troleum,  which  is  so  thick  and  adhesive  that  it  does 
not  fall  off,  but  is  removed  by  scraping  the  instru¬ 
ment  on  the  lip  of  the  trough  or  pot.  It  has  then  a 
very  foul  appearance  like  very  dirty  tar  or  molasses; 
but  it  is  purified  by  heating  and  straining  it  while  hot 
through  flannel  or  other  woolen  stuff.  It  is  used  by 
the  people  of  the  vicinity  for  sprains  and  rheumatism 
and  for  sores  on  their  horses,  it  being  in  both  cases  rub¬ 
bed  upon  the  part.  It  is  not  monopolized  by  anyone, 
but  is  carried  away  freely  by  all  who  care  to  collect  it, 
and  for  this  purpose  the  spring  is  frequently  visited. 
I  could  not  ascertain  how  much  is  annually  obtained; 
but  the  quantity  is  considerable.  It  is  said  to  rise  more 
abundantly  in  hot  weather  than  in  cold.  Gas  is  con¬ 
stantly  escaping  through  the  water,  and  appears  in  bub¬ 
bles  upon  its  surface.” 

The  Indians  have  used  crude  oil  for  several  cen¬ 
turies  and  proudly  led  Joseph  d’ Allion  over  the  hills  to 
show  him  their  wonderful  treasure.  In  1748,  Peter 
Kalm,  a  Finnish  naturalist,  was  at  the  oil  springs  along 
Oil  Creek,  in  Venango  County,  Pennsylvania,  and  in¬ 
dicated  them  upon  the  map  that  was  subsequently  pub¬ 
lished.  French  soldiers  and  officers  were  led  to  them 
also,  as  a  letter  from  Lieutenant  Joumonville,  1750, 
shows,  explaining  the  impressive  ceremony  in  that  wild 
forest,  as  only  a  Frenchman  could,  translated  as  fol¬ 
lows  : 

“I  would  desire  to  assure  you  that  this  is  a  most 
delightful  land.  Some  of  the  most  astonishing  natu¬ 
ral  wonders  have  been  discovered  by  our  people.  While 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


151 


descending  the  Allegheny,  15  leagues  below  the  mouth 
of  the  Conewango  and  3  above  the  Venango,  we  were 
invited  by  the  Chief  of  the  Senecas  to  attend  a  re¬ 
ligious  ceremony  of  his  tribe.  We  landed,  and  drew 
up  our  canoes  on  a  point  where  a  small  stream  entered 
the  river.  The  tribe  appeared  unusually  solemn.  We 
marched  up  the  stream  about  half  a  league,  where  the 
company,  a  large  band  it  appeared,  had  arrived  some 
days  before  us.  Gigantic  hills  begirt  us  on  every  side. 
The  scene  was  really  sublime.  The  great  Chief  then 
recited  the  conquests  and  heroism  of  his  ancestors.  The 
surface  of  the  stream  was  covered  with  a  thick  scum, 
which,  upon  applying  a  torch  at  a  given  signal,  burst 
into  a  complete  conflagration.  Al  the  sight  of  the  flames 
the  Indians  gave  forth  the  triumphant  shout  that  made 
the  hills  and  valleys  re-echo  many  times.  Here,  then, 
is  revived  the  ancient  fire-worship  of  the  East;  here, 
then,  are  the  children  of  the  Sun.” 

Ancient  oil  pits,  sometimes  containing  trees  of  the 
growth  of  centuries,  are  said  to  have  been  found  in  the 
vicinity  of  Oil  Creek,  where  erosion  had  cut  through 
the  covering  and  exposed  the  stratum  of  oil-saturated 
sand.  The  oil  then  floated  upon  the  surface  of  the 
pools  that  formed  below  the  source  of  it  and  the  In¬ 
dians  threw  poles  across  the  stream,  in  time  of  flood, 
to  hold  back  the  oil,  which  accumulated  in  thousands 
of  gallons,  and  when  lighted,  burned  slowly  for  ten 
or  twelve  hours  on  the  surface  of  the  stream.  Truly, 
a  wonder,  sending  a  black  smoke-column  thousands  of 
feet  high,  in  the  still  air. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


FROM  FOREST  LORE  AND  OBSERVATIONS— 
CONSERVATION  AND  DESOLATION 

(Written  by  John  C.  French) 

THE  village  of  Ceres,  New  York,  was  located  at  the 
line  between  the  states,  upon  Oswayo  Creek ;  and 
at  the  south,  in  McKean  County,  Pennsylvania,  lies  the 
township  of  Ceres,  through  which  flows  King’s  Run  to 
join  the  Oswayo.  The  village  and  the  township  com¬ 
memorate  the  name  of  the  Ceres  Company,  which 
acquired  nearly  300,000  acres  of  the  Bingham  lands, 
in  Potter  and  McKean  counties,  Pennsylvania.  Fran¬ 
cis  King  located  a  mill  for  grinding  grain  and  sawing 
lumber,  in  1798,  near  the  confluence  of  the  stream,  on 
King’s  Run,  the  beginning  of  developments  in  McKean 
county ;  and  the  forests  were  administrated  conserva¬ 
tively,  until  1872,  the  dawn  of  the  hemlock  era,  in  that 
part  of  the  Allegheny  watershed,  when  railroads  had 
been  completed  into  that  section  and  tanneries  built. 

The  Ceres  Company’s  lands  were  disposed  of,  during 
87  years,  and  the  hemlock  timber  passed  into  control 
of  the  tanners,  lumbermen  and  their  financial  allies,  a 
few  years  later.  From  1872,  the  boom  expanded, 
for  twenty  years,  as  the  riot  of  devastation  continued 
unabated.  Tanneries  became  more  numerous  and  saw¬ 
mills  were  improved  and  enlarged.  Tramways  pene¬ 
trated  the  forest,  over  which  the  bark  and  the  peeled 
logs  were  moved  rapidly,  dn  all  seasons  of  the  year. 


152 


PINCERS 

Invented,  Patented  and  Used  by  James  V.  Bennett, 
Effectually  Reduced  the  Cruelty  at  the  Wholesale 
Butcheries  to  a  Minimum 


Which 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


153 


The  water-power  mills,  of  transitory  efficiency,  were 
augmented  or  supplanted  by  the  more  stable  and  re¬ 
liable  steam  engine,  and  circular  or  rotary  saws  re¬ 
placed  the  mulay  and  the  sash-saw  varieties.  The  hum 
of  industry  broke  over  the  quiet  valleys  and  the  hills 
re-echoed  with  steam-whistle  music,  where,  lately,  had 
been  heard  only  the  solitary  cry  of  the  panther,  the 
howling  of  the  wolves,  hooting  of  owls,  or  the  hunter’s 
rifle  that  broke  the  forest  stillness. 

Forest  fires  swept  over  the  slashings  and  consumed 
the  beech  trees  and  the  other  hardwoods.  The  ani¬ 
mals  fled  and  the  pigeons  came  no  more.  The  birds 
languished  and  the  larvae  of  millers  and  bugs  grew 
fat  upon  hemlocks,  and  the  other  trees.  Cyclones  laid 
the  forest  flat  and  the  summer  sun  dried  up  the  moun¬ 
tain  brooks,  until  the  trout  abandoned  them.  The 
hunters  and  fishermen  no  more  sought  their  prey  in  the 
forests ;  but  degenerated  in  the  softness  of  the  dissi¬ 
pating  sports  they  patronized.  The  elements  and  the 
flight  of  Time,  augmented  by  the  wastefulness  of 
man,  narrowed  the  forest,  from  year  to  year,  until  the 
denuded  hills  arose,  in  the  grimness  of  desolation,  like 
spectres  of  a  diseased  imagination,  to  rebuke  a  wan¬ 
ton  generation. 

But  there  are  compensating  facts  to  comfort  the 
guilty  despoilers.  They  sought  a  livelihood  in  har¬ 
vesting  the  ripe  crop  of  hemlock,  that  Nature  had 
planted  and  tended,  against  the  time  of  need,  and  in 
developing  our  great  nation,  to  add  its  wealth  to  that 


154 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


of  the  world  and  preserve  the  priceless  gleam  of 
Liberty,  for  humanity  and  truth.  The  hemlock  in¬ 
dustry  furnished  materials  for  producing  leather  and 
for  constructing  comfortable  homes,  throughout  the 
central  and  eastern  states,  at  less  cost  than  any  other. 
It  made  a  rich  empire  of  a  trackless  forest,  and  sup¬ 
plied  the, necessary  funds  to  improve  the  counties  that 
have  been  created,  to  erect  substantial  public  buildings, 
safe  bridges  and  good  roads ;  and  it  fostered  a  profit¬ 
able  and  convenient  home  market  for  the  products  of 
agriculture.  The  industry  provided  inducements  for 
constructing  permanent  and  valuable  railroads  that  will 
continue  to  benefit  the  entire  Commonwealth  in  all  fu¬ 
ture  time. 

Unreasoning  sentimentalism  prompts  us  to  blame 
only  the  lumbermen  and  the  tanners  for  the  destruction 
of  our  beautiful  forests,  during  the  last  forty  years, 
while  others  are  equally  responsible  for  their  sins  of 
omission,  in  past  decades,  and  which  continue  to  blind 
many  people.  Preserving  a  forest  should  be  a  mat¬ 
ter  for  a  nation,  state,  county,  city  or  a  township,  to 
administer  for  the  public  and  with  public  funds ;  be¬ 
cause  the  benefit  cannot  be  reduced  to  a  per  cent,  incre¬ 
ment.  There  is  beauty,  health,  climate,  recreation 
and  many  other  benefits,  in  which  all  should  share  to 
the  fullest  extent.  Private  enterprise  cannot  compete, 
over  so  long  a  period  and  broad  a  space.  We  should 
cultivate  ten  million  acres  of  forest  in  the  Keystone 
state — and  do  it  now. 

Forty-four  years  ago,  the  voice  that  was  crying  for 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


155 


forest  legislation — Governor  Hartranft — met  with  no 
response  from  the  people.  A  dozen  years  passed  away 
before  the  matter  came  up  again,  and  a  report  to 
Governor  Beaver  was  authorized,  paving  the  way  for 
legislation;  but  nothing  came  of  it.  Governor  Patti- 
son  (1891-4)  succeeded  in  getting  favorable  legisla¬ 
tion  for  3  preserves,  of  40,000  acres  each,  from  lands 
sold  for  taxes.  Governor  Stone,  (1899),  found  that 
the  state  owned  less  than  20,000  acres  of  forest  land, 
and  in  1901,  he  succeeded  in  getting  a  favoring  law, 
under  which  half  a  million  acres  were  purchased,  before 
his  administration  closed,  in  1903.  Under  that  law 
we  soon  had  about  a  million  acres  of  forest  preserves. 
But  recent  additions  have  been  of  slight  importance. 

Hereafter  no  administration  should  be  approved  of, 
that  has  failed  to  add  to  our  forests  a  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  acres,  by  purchase  and  planting  trees,  until  a  mag¬ 
nificent  total  of  ten  million  acres  are  under  state  con¬ 
trol.  In  various  counties,  such  unreasonable  valuations 
for  taxation  have  been  made  by  the  assessors  and  con¬ 
firmed  by  the  county  commissioners,  supported  by  the 
people,  that  owners  of  forest  lands  have  been  forced  to 
cut  and  market  the  timber  to  avoid  total  confiscation  of 
their  estates.  This  did  not  tend  toward  the  preserva¬ 
tion  of  the  forests,  in  private  ownership,  nor  invite 
capital  to  reinvestment  in  renewing  forests  for  another 
generation ;  but  it  did  compel  the  investors  to  liquidate, 
as  fast  as  possible,  and  to  allow  the  denuded  lands  to 
be  sold  for  taxes,  or  to  the  Commonwealth  for  forest 
renewal. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


A  HIT  FROM  THE  SHOULDER 


The  Other  Side  of  the  Question — Why  Forests  Were 
Destroyed 

((By  an  Old  Forester) 

WRITTEN  for  Altoona  Tribune  by  C.  W.  Dickin¬ 
son,  veteran  woodsman  and  hunter,  with  Foot 
Notes  by  John  C.  French. 

“Why  are  our  forests  disappearing  so  fast'*’  The 
writer  had  heard  this  question  asked  many  times,  ar  d 
as  many  theories  advanced  as  to  what  ought  to  be  done 
to  save  some  of  Pennsylvania’s  fine  forests.  All  the 
theories  we  ever  heard  advanced  in  this  matter  are  sim¬ 
ply  foolish  rot.  We  are  going  to  give  you  some  facts 
and  figures  to  show  why  this  land  is  being  denuded 
of  the  trees  growing  thereon. 

In  1888,  F.  H.  and  C.  W.  Goodyear  purchased  a 
tract  of  land  of  about  29,000  acres ;  2,000  acres  were  in 
the  northeast  corner  of  Cameron  county,  3,000  acres 
in  the  northeast  corner  of  Elk  county,  and  24,000  acres 
in  McKean  county,  in  the  townships  of  Norwich  and 
Sergeant.  This  is  the  forest  land  that  our  statement 
refers  to.  The  assessors  of  the  two  townships  have 
kept  increasing  the  value  of  those  lands  for  years  until 
about  twelve  years  ago,  when  they  had  gotten  the 
valuation  so  high  that  they  dare  not  put  it  any  higher. 


156 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


157 


The  assessors,  with  the  aid  of  the  county  commission¬ 
ers,  put  the  valuation  of  these  lands  at  $75  per  acre  on 
all  of  this  tract  of  forest,  or  timber  land,  with  an  ad¬ 
ditional  $4  per  acre  as  mineral  land,  making  the  total 
valuation  on  these  lands  $79  per  acre,  which  is  the 
amount  the  assessment  books  in  the  commissioner’s 
office  shows.  There  is  about  1,200  acres  of  this  tract 
which  the  timber  was  cut  off  of  something  like  twenty 
years  ago,  so  that  would  leave  nearly  23,000  acres  of 
this  tract  of  timberland  in  the  two  townships  above 
mentioned.  The  taxes  levied  on  the  assessed  valua¬ 
tion  in  the  county  is  about  33  mills  on  the  dollar. 
Twenty-three  thousand  acres  valued  at  $79  per  acre, 
would  put  the  valuation  of  this  tract  of  land  at  $1,817,- 
000 ;  but  with  a  33  mill  levy  it  would  make  the  annual 
tax  on  this  property  $59,961.  In  ten  years’  time  the 
taxes  on  this  same  property  would  amount  to  $599, 
610.  Now,  with  the  risk  of  cyclones  and  wind  storms 
which  blow  down  quite  a  lot  of  trees  annually,  and  the 
risk  they  run  against  forest  fires,  what  chance  have 
the  owners  of  forest  lands  but  only  to  cut  off  the  trees 
as  quickly  as  possible?  For  no  man  living  can  pay 
such  outrageous  taxes  and  live  on.  It  would  only 
take  a  few  years  to  put  him  to  the  wall.  This  looks 
to  me  like  a  legal  robbery. 

One  of  the  assessors  who  raised  this  valuation  to 
$75  per  acre  owns  a  farm  that  is  nearly  surrounded  by 
the  lands  in  question,  there  being  only  about  eleven) 
rods  of  his  boundry  line  at  the  northeast  corner  which 
do  not  join  these  wild  lands.  He  has  two  houses,  two 


158 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


barns  and  other  outbuildings  and  about  half  of  his 
land  is  cleared  and  under  a  good  state  of  cultivation. 
With  all  the  improvements  on  his  land  and  about  half 
of  his  farm  a  forest,  the  same  as  the  land  adjoining, 
he  only  assessed  his  land  at  $8  per  acre,  while  the  land 
adjoining  him  on  all  sides,  minus  eleven  rods,  was  as¬ 
sessed  at  $75  per  acre.  How  much  value  would  a 
man  like  this  attach  to  the  oath  he  was  required  to 
take  before  taking  up  the  duties  of  an  assessor? 

If  a  man  had  wild  land  given  to  him  he  could  not 
hold  it  twenty-five  years,  unless  he  was  at  least  a  mil¬ 
lionaire.  But  we  will  wager  dollars  to  buttons  that 
he  would  never  get  back  the  amount  he  had  paid  in 
taxes,  to  say  nothing  of  the  use  of  the  amount  he  had 
paid  in  taxes  for  the  twenty-five  years. 

C.  W.  DICKINSON. 
Concord,  Mass.,  May  23,  1917. 

Compounding  Taxable  Values  On  the  Forest  Land 

This  method  of  taxation,  based  upon  the  value  of 
the  product  of  past  years,  that  had  been  taxed,  from 
year  to  year,  as  it  matured,  was  confiscation  of  pro¬ 
perty,  by  compounding  the  yearly  earnings  of  the  land ; 
instead  of  basing  the  tax  at  about  the  value  of  growth 
of  timber,  for  the  year  it  was  levied  for,  and  paid, 
seems  to  evade  and  annul,  in  fact,  the  fairness  con¬ 
templated  in  Section  I,  of  the  First  Article  of  the  Con¬ 
stitution  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania.  It 
also  ignores  the  principle  that  our  usury  laws  are 
founded  on. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


159 


The  first  clause  of  Section  I,  Article  IX,  of  our  con¬ 
stitution,  is,  likewise,  set  at  naught,  by  the  unfair  prac¬ 
tice  described  in  the  above  letter.  While  classes  of  sub¬ 
jects  may  be  legally  made,  for  the  purposes  of  taxa¬ 
tion,  there  should  be  no  frivolous  or  selfish  motive 
masked  by  a  technical  compliance  with  the  statutes, 
made  and  provided,  while  the  spirit  of  the  constitution 
is  made  abortive. 

As  stated  in  his  letter,  Mr.  Dickinson  has  given  a 
brief  outline  of  the  tax  history  of  the  lands  only,  that 
lie  in  the  townships  of  Sergeant  and  Norwich,  in  Mc¬ 
Kean  county.  The  5,000  acres  in  the  counties  of  Cam¬ 
eron  and  Elk  are  not  included  in  his  history  of  valua¬ 
tion  and  the  taxes  levied,  which  became  so  burdensome 
that  the  owners  decided,  about  five  years  ago,  to  re¬ 
move  the  bark  and  timber  as  rapidly  as  possible.  It 
had  been  held  by  them  24  years,  since  1888,  and  was 
the  last  forest  of  original  hemlock  timber  left  in  the 
entire  state. 

The  last  hemlock  will  be  cut  into  lumber  in  the 
near  future,  and  the  small  trees  can  become  great  when 
forest  fires  cease  to  destroy  them.  Like  the  pas¬ 
senger  pigeons,  the  hemlock  timber  of  Pennsylvania 
has  served  mankind  and  is  gone.  Both  may  be  cul¬ 
tivated  in  future  years ;  but  never  shall  either  be  seen 
upon  the  earth,  as  the  birds  and  the  trees  were  be¬ 
held  fifty  years  ago,  when  our  Black  Forest  existed, 
clothing  hills  and  valleys  with  verdure  and  the  gloom 
of  a  real  “umberland.” 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  OUTLINES 

J  An  J,  Audubon 

JOHN  J.  Audubon,  author  of  '‘Birds  of  America’’ 
has  been  termed  a  “man  of  mystery.”  The  date 
and  place  of  his  birth  has  been  variously  given,  his 
parentage  and  antecedents,  as  well  as  his  early  life  have 
been  described  at  most  as  “shadowy.”  Thanks  to- 
Prof.  Francis  H.  Herrick  of  Western  Reserve  Univer¬ 
sity,  the  gifted  author  of  “The  Home  Life  of  Wild 
Birds,”  all  the  doubt  and  mystery  have  been  cleared 
away  and  set  before  the  public  in  a  substantial  two 
volume  biography,  issued  in  191?',  entitled  “Audubon 
the  Naturalist.”  It  appears  that  Audubon  was  the 
natural  son  of  a  wealthy  Frenchman,  and  was  born  in 
Haiti,  April  26,  1785.  His  mother  was  a  French  Cre¬ 
ole  girl  known  as  Miss  Rabin.  At  four  years  of  age 
he  was  taken  to  France,  with  his  little  half  sister  Mu- 
guet,  where  both  children  were  cordially  received  by 
the  childless  wife  of  the  substantial  Frenchman,  and 
were  later  legally  adopted  by  the  couple.  The  boy 
studied  art  under  the  great  master  J.  L.  David  in 
Paris,  and  returned  to  America  in  1803.  He  settled  at 
“Mill  Grove,”  on  Perkiomen  Creek,  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  and  for  a  time  resided  at  Lititz,  Lancaster 
County.  In  1806  he  returned  to  France  and  for  a  short 
period  served  in  the  French  navy.  In  1808  he  married 


160 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


161 


Miss  Lucy  Bakewell,  of  Philadelphia,  daughter  of  a 
former  employer.  Then  began  his  period  of  wander¬ 
ings  with  his  family,  into  the  wild  regions  of  the  mid¬ 
dle  west,  which  were  the  inspiration  of  his  later  orni¬ 
thological  works.  He  engaged  in  many  business  en¬ 
terprises,  but  much  of  his  time  was  spent  studying  and 
sketching  the  wild  birds.  He  was  many  times  in  des¬ 
perate  straits,  and  for  a  time  gave  dancing  lessons  in 
Mississippi.  With  the  nucleus  of  his  marvelous  life 
portraits  of  birds  he  sailed  for  England  on  May  17, 
1826,  feeling  that  he  would  find  a  greater  appreciation 
there.  He  was  splendidly  received  in  the  British  Isles, 
and  in  France,  his  work  was  euglogized  in  Paris  by 
Cuvier.  He  returned  to  America  in  1829.  The  en¬ 
suing  years  were  spent  in  this  country  and  abroad 
bringing  out  his  monumental  work,  the  first  volume  of 
which  appeared  in  1831.  The  fifth  and  concluding  vol¬ 
ume  of  the  “Ornithological  Biography”  appeared  in 
1839.  “The  Birds  of  America”  appeared  in  1840.  In 
1842  he  established  his  home  in  the  upper  part  of  New 
York  city,  in  the  section  now  know  as  Audubon  Park. 
In  1846,  in  collaboration  with  Rev.  John  Bachman, 
whose  two  daughters  had  married  Audubon’s  two  sons 
appeared  “The  Viparious  Quadrupeds  of  North 
America.” 

In  1847  his  health  began  to  fail,  and  he  lingered 
for  several  years,  worn  out  by  his  arduous  labors,  dy¬ 
ing  at  Audubon  Park,  January  27,  1851,  aged  65  years. 
His  body  rests  in  Trinity  Cemetery,  not  far  from  his 
former  residence,  under  a  handsome  monument,  which. 


162 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


however,  was  not  erected  until  about  thirty  years  ago. 
His  name  as  a  naturalist  is  secure,  and  he  occupies  a 
lofty  and  unique  position  in  the  ornithological  world. 
His  interest  in  the  Passenger  Pigeon  was  very  deep, 
his  illustrations  of  this  noble  bird  being  the  best  extant. 
In  Prof.  Herrick’s  “biography”  Vol.  1,  facing  page 
292,  appears  a  truly  lifelike  sketch  of  a  male  pigeon 
made  by  the  famous  bird-lover  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  on 
December  11,  1809.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  he 
calls  it  “Passenger  Pigeon,  Columba  migratoria  . 

appele  ici  Wild  Pigeon ”  While  in  Edin¬ 
burgh  in  the  winter  of  1827  he  prepared  and  read  a 
paper  entitled  “Habits  of  the  Wild  Pigeon  of  America” 
before  the  members  of  a  learned  society  of  that  city. 
He  began  the  preparation  of  the  paper  and  kept  at  the 
work  during  an  entire  day  finishing  it  at  half  past 
three  in  the  morning;  so  completely  said  he,  was  he 
transported  to  the  woods  of  America  and  to  the  pig¬ 
eons,  that  his  ears  “were  as  if  -really  filled  with  the 
noise  of  their  wings.”  Evidently  the  poetry  and  ro¬ 
mance  of  the  pigeons  were  in  his  soul,  as  with  every 
other  out-door  American  who  came  in  contact  with 
them,  or  learned  to  know  them  in  his  dreams  as  the 
result  of  conversations  with  the  old  people.  If  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  hover  in  the  ether  surrounding  their 
final  seputure  the  soul  of  Audubon  must  have  been 
stirred  that  wild  night  in  the  autumn  of  187'6  when 
as  the  result  of  a  heavy  storm  in  the  Hudson  valley  a 
large  flock  of  those  wonderful  birds  appele  ici  Wild 
Pigeon  were  driven  into  the  Trinity  Cemetery,  and 


STOOL  PIGEON  BASKET 

Constructed  and  Used  by  Bernet  Rynearson,  Huntersville, 
Lycoming  County,  Pa. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  163 


found  refuge  in  the  old  trees,  and  on  his  grave.  In 
the  morning  the  gardeners  noticed  them,  the  first  time 
that  many  of  them  had  ever  seen  the  species ,  though 
they  were  sorely  bedraggled  specimens,  heavy  of  wing 
and  unsteady  of  foot.  The  gardeners  in  sweeping 
aside  the  masses  of  fallen  leaves,  had  to  brush  some  of 
the  jaded  birds  out  of  the  paths,  and  when  towards 
evening  they  suddenly  took  their  flight,  winging  in  a 
long  line  across  the  river  a  few  birds  remained  on  the 
ground,  where  they  fell  victims  to  the  neighboring 
squatters’  cats.  Could  it  have  been,  in  the  eternal 
verity  of  things,  that  some  spiritual  compass  drew 
these  storm-tossed  and  much  persecuted  birds  towards 
the  then  unmarked  resting  place  of  their  friend,  who 
even  in  far  distant  Edinburgh,  as  he  wrote  of  their 
beauty  and  mystic  life,  the  history  of  their  majestic 
flights,  felt  his  ears  filled  “as  if  with  the  sound  of  their 
wings,”  and  there  found  surcease  for  their  sorrows. 


.  Alexander  Wilson 

On  July  6,  1766,  at  Paisley,  Scotland,  Alexander 
Wilson  was  born.  He  was  apprenticed  to  a  weaver, 
for  whom  he  worked  seven  years  and  amused  himself, 
at  the  same  time,  by  writing  verses.  As  soon  as  he 
was  free,  with  a  peddler’s  pack  he  travelled  to  Edin¬ 
burgh  and  took  part  in  the  literary  discussions  of 
that  period.  He  wrote  “The  Laurel  Disputed,  a 
Poem,”  and  “Watty  and  Meg,”  a  droll  poem  in  Scot- 


164 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


tish  dialect,  and  became  a  contributor  to  “The  Bee,” 
lampooning  a  resident  of  Paisley;  for  which  he  was 
condemned  to  a  short  term  in  prison,  and  to  burn  the 
libel,  with  his  own  hand,  at  the  Paisley  cross.  Dis¬ 
gusted  at  this  unappreciation  of  his  genius,  he  sailed 
from  Belfast  and  landed  at  New  Castle,  Delaware, 
July  14,  17*94,  with  a  few  borrowed  shillings  in  his 
pocket,  and  no  acquaintances  in  the  Land  of  the  Free. 

At  Philadelphia,  he  found  employment  with  a  cop¬ 
per-plate  printer,  and  later,  he  worked  for  a  weaver; 
then,  as  a  peddler,  he  travelled  through  New  Jersey, 
where  the  brilliant  plumage  of  the  wild  birds  attracted 
his  attention.  Then  he  returned  to  Pennsylvania  and 
became  a  school  teacher,  for  a  while,  then  walked  800 
miles  to  visit  his  nephew,  in  New  York  state,  returning 
to  New  Jersey,  where  he  taught  school,  living  near 
the  botanic  gardens  of  William  Bartram,  who  en¬ 
couraged  him  to  study  natural  history.  In  October 
1804,  Wilson  set  out  to  make  a  collection  of  birds, 
walking  to  Niagara  Falls,  and  wrote  his  poem,  “The 
Foresters.” 

During  1805,  Wilson  learned  etching  from  a  Mr. 
Lawson,  who  had  previously  taught  him  to  draw ;  and 
Wilson  was  then  employed  on  the  American  edition  of 
Ree’s  Cyclopoedia  and  prevailed  upon  Mr.  Bradford, 
the  publisher,  to  undertake  an  American  Ornithology. 
The  first  volume  appeared  in  1808,  and  the  second  in 
early  months  of  1810.  Then  Wilson  travelled  down 
the  Ohio  river,  and  overland  from  Memphis  to  New 
Orleans  and  returned  to  Nashville,  through  forests 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


166 


and  mountain  trails,  collecting  material  for  the  third 
volume,  published  in  1812.  Later  he  explored  New 
England;  and  at  Haverhill,  New  Hampshire,  he  was 
arrested,  as  a  British  spy,  a  circumstance  which  prob¬ 
ably  hastened  his  death,  at  Philadelphia,  August  23, 
1813,  when  he  had  completed  seven  volumes  of  his 
work.  The  eighth  and  ninth  volumes  were  published 
after  his  death  by  George  Ord,  the  companion  of  his 
travels  and  his  labors. — John  C.  French. 


Prince  Charles  Lucien  Bonaparte 

On  May  24,  1803,  at  Paris,  France,  the  first  son 
of  the  Prince  of  Canino  was  born,  and  he  was  christen¬ 
ed,  Charles  Lucien  Jules  Laurent  Bonaparte,  Prince 
of  Canino  and  Musignano.  He  had  no  inclination  for 
political  life,  preferring  the  more  wholesome  pursuits 
of  literature  and  science.  He  became  a  naturalist  and 
a  writer  on  ornithology,  continuing  Alexander  Wilson’s 
“Ornithology  of  America,”  in  four  volumes  brought 
out,  from  1828  to  1833,  at  Philadelphia,  where  he  liv¬ 
ed  many  years.  He  died  on  July  29,  1857.  So  this 
nephew  of  the  great  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  by  residing 
in  America,  was  enabled  to  finish  the  great  work  that 
Wilson  and  Ord  had  begun  and  left  unfinished,  be¬ 
sides  other  important  work,  and  he  stimulated  and  en¬ 
couraged  Audobon  to  publish  his  drawings  and  notes 
of  America’s  great  bird  population. — John  C.  French. 


166 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Charles  Darwin,  F.  R.  S.,  the  Great  English 
Naturalist 

On  February  12,  1809,  Charles  Darwin  was  born 
at  Shrewsbury,  England,  grandson  of  Erasmus  Dar¬ 
win,  M.  D.,  and  son  of  Robert  Darwin,  F.  R.  S. — 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  on  the  same  day.  On 
December  27,  1831,  he  sailed  away  on  H.  M.  Ship 
Beagle,  as  naturalist,  for  a  survey  of  South  America, 
returning  to  England,  October  2,  1836,  from  circumj 
navigating  the  earth.  His  entire  life  was  devoted  to 
scientific  researches  and  writing  of  his  deductions  from 
his  observations  and  from  reliable  records,  made  by 
many  other  men.  Among  other  works,  his  “ Voyage 
of  a  Naturalist”  is  a  beautiful  work;  his  “Journal  of 
Researches  into  Geology  and  Natural  History  of  the 
various  Countries  visited  by  H.  M.  S.  Beagle the 
“Zoology  of  the  Voyage;”  and  his  “Geological  Obser¬ 
vations  on  South  America”  are  of  great  interest  and 
benefit  to  us  all. 

His  “Origin  of  Species;”  and  “The  Descent  of 
Man,”  contain  many  deductions,  made  from  breeding 
various  domesticated  pigeons,  other  birds  and  animals,! 
and  are  of  priceless  value  to  all  students  who  seek 
understanding  along  the  lines  of  his  discussions.  On 
plants  and  their  powers  he  left  many  valuable  hints 
and  interesting  comments  upon  their  sex  characteristics' 
and  their  principal  life-work. 

His  contention  that  the  various  species  of  plants 
and  animals,  instead  of  having  been  each  specially  ere-1 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  167 


ated  and  immutable,  are  constantly  subject  to  change, 
through  a  process  of  adaptation,  by  which  those  best 
fitted  to  survive  in  changing  environments,  become  the)  - 
prevailing  species,  at  the  expense  of  other  species  andl 
varieties — This  process  of  natural  selection  being  so 
potent  and  universal  that  it  seems  capable,  with  other) 
less  important  causes,  of  explaining  how  all  of  the  ex¬ 
isting  species  have  decended  from  one  or  a  very  few] 
low  forms  of  life — has  excited  a  controversy  which 
seems  incapable  of  being  laid  to  rest;  but  Darwin’s 
theory  has  been  embraced  by  many  of  the  ablest  natu-i 
ralists.  It  has  induced  great  changes  in  the  methods 
cf  biology  and  kindred  sciences.  His  death  occurred} 
April  20,  1882. — John  C.  French. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  DATA  OF  OTIS  J.  P.  LYMAN, 
A  PIONEER  OF  POTTER  COUNTY,  PENN¬ 
SYLVANIA,  WITH  STORY  OF  TAKING 
PIGEONS  FOR  NEW  YORK 
MARKETS 

(By  John  C.  French) 

OTIS  Jacob  Palmer  Lyman  was  born  in  the  township 
of  Roulette,  Potter  county,  Pennsylvania,  Nov-: 
ember  6,  1836,  and  has  resided  in  that  vicinity  all  his 
life.  He  was  married,  in  1860,  to  Rosella  Sherwood, 
daughter  of  Stephen  Sherwood  of  the  same  place,  and! 
raised  a  large  family.  He  was  the  eleventh  of  twelve 
children  born  to  John  Lyman  and  his  wife,  Lucretiaj 
Palmer.  His  younger  brother,  Almeron  N.  Lyman, i 
served  in  the  Civil  war,  and  died  in  Virginia,  April  16, 
1864.  In  the  Lyman  family,  in  the  United  States; 
Otis  J.  P.  is  of  the  eighth  generation,  beginning  with 
Richard  Lyman  who  resided  at  Charlestown,  Mass.,) 
1631-1635,  and  later  at  Hartford,  Conn.  Tracing  back-! 
ward,  he  was  preceded  by  John,  7 ;  Major  Isaac,  6  ;  who 
came  to  Potter  county  in  1804;  Benjamin,  5;  Isaac,  4;1 
Richard,  3 ;  Richard,  2 ;  Richard,  1 ;  according  to  thd 
chart  prepared  by  Miss  Julia  E.  Lyman  of  Hartford, 
Conn.,  finished  in  1870,  after  years  of  patient  investi¬ 
gation  of  family  records  and  traditions. 

In  the  spring  of  1861  the  Passenger  Pigeons  nest- 


168 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


169 


ed  on  the  highlands  of  Potter  county  and  William  Sher-i 
wood  and  Otis  Lyman  procured  a  net  12x26  feet  to 
trap  the  old  birds  in  their  daily  flights  to  their  feeding 
grounds  to  westward.  When  returning  the  birds  could! 
not  be  decoyed  to  alight ;  but  in  the  early  morning  they] 
were  hungry  and  the  “flyers”  and  “stool-pigeons”  en-: 
ticed  the  flocks  to  come  down  and  investiate,  when 
they  were  readily  caught  by  springing  the  net  over 
them  as  they  were  settling  upon  the  ground.  One  hun¬ 
dred  birds  at  each  springing  of  the  net  was  a  fair  aver-; 
age  catch  the  first  morning,  at  Burtville,  Pa.,  but  upon 
succeeding  days  the  pigeons  were  shy  and  only  a  few) 
could  be  caught  at  the  same  place. 

Before  daylight  Sherwood  and  Lyman  were  ready 
for  the  work  of  their  first  day.  They  caught  a  fewl 
more  than  1,500  pigeons  the  first  day,  before  11  o’clock ; 
which  they  packed  with  ice  in  a  large  wagon  bed,  and 
Otis  started  at  once  for  Olean,  New  York,  the  nearest 
railroad  point  at  that  time,  where  he  arrived  early  the 
next  morning,  after  an  all-night  ride  of  about  32  miles. 
The  birds  were  repacked  in  barrels,  with  ice,  and  ship¬ 
ped  by  express  to  a  commission  house  in  New  York 
city,  for  sale.  Mr.  Lyman  rested  a  day  and  returned 
to  Roulette  with  a  wagon  load  of  flour,  stopping  a  night 
at  Rant  Larrabee’s  famous  roadside  inn  of  those  days, 
now  Larrabee’s  station  on  Pennsylvania  railroad. 

Few  more  pigeons  had  been  caught  by  Mr.  Sher-1 
wood  and  they  abandoned  the  netting  business.  For 
the  catch  of  their  first  day  they  received  a  little  over4 
$100,  over  and'  above  charges  for  expressage  and  com- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


170 


mission  for  selling  the  birds.  That  was  about  7  cents 
for  each  bird.  They  went  to  the  nesting  colonies  on 
Trout  Brook,  Nelson  Creek  and  Dingman’s  Run,  when 
the  squabs  were  ready  to  be  caught  for  the  markets, 
and  secured  another  wagon  load  of  birds  for  their' 
New  York  customers.  They  found  about  125  fat 
young  birds  in  every  IDO  nests  that  they  took  the  squabs 
from  that  year.  Some  years  the  rate  would  be  as 
high  as  150  squabs  from  100  nests;  and  some  years 
less  that  105  young  birds  from  100  nests.  None  of  these 
colonies  were  in  squares  or  rectangles.  They  were  ir¬ 
regular,  following  the  bends  of  the  creeks,  and  upon 
the  hilltops  beyond,  in  hemlock  and  hardwood  trees. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON— ITS  LAST  PHASE 

By  HENRY  W.  SHOEMAKER 

MORE  than  ten  years  have  passed  since  the  writer 
first  came  in  touch  with  Prof.  C.  F.  Hodge, 
of  Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass.,  the  noted 
naturalist  who  firmly  believed  that  the  Passenger 
Pigeons  were  not  extinct.  The  Professor,  at  his  own 
expense,  carried  on  an  expensive  publicity  campaign 
for  several  years,  but  was  unable  to  produce  tangible 
proofs  of  the  actual  existence  of  the  elusive  birds. 
Through  the  co-operation  of  leading  men,  handsome 
rewards  were  offered  in  each  of  the  States  in  the 
former  range  of  the  pigeons  for  the  discovery  of  a 
nest,  and  the  protection  of  the  young  birds  until  they 
were  able  to  fly  and,  though  hosts  of  claimants 
appeared  and  the  genial  Professor  indulged  in  sundry 
“wild  goose  chases”,  some  a's  far  north  as  Canada, 
.he  found  nothing  but  the  nests  of  flickers,  doves  and 
cuckoos.  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt  had  volun¬ 
teered  to  help  identify  nests,  but  passed  on  “nothing 
nearer  the  object  of  quest  than  the  nests  of  mourn¬ 
ing  doves.  Early  in  1912  Professor  Hodge  dissolved 
his  committees,  abandoned  the  rewards,  and  refused 
to  pursue  the  question  further.  The  writer  recollects 
Prof.  Hodge  very  pleasantly.  He  was  an  enthusiast, 
and  at  one  time  his  faith  in  ultimately  recovering  the 
pigeons  was  unbounded.  How  he  became  so  deeply 


171 


172 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


interested  in  the  subject  is  worth  recording  here. 
One  morning  in  the  Autumn  he  was  working  in  his 
garden  when  he  heard  a  whir  of  wings  not  far  above 
his  head.  Looking  up  he  saw  a  flock  of  about  thirty 
wTild  pigeons  winging  their  way  Southward.  They 
flew  so  low  that  his  identification  was  positive.  In¬ 
voluntarily  he  took  off  his  hat  and  waved  it,  shouting, 
“The  Passenger  Pigeons  are  not  extinct”.  That  was 
in  1905.  He  felt,  as  he  expressed  it,  that  he  was 
designated  by  fate  to  prove  the  existence  of  the  birds 
to  the  ornithological  world.  He  began  by  naming 
committees,  soliciting  rewards  and  extending  a 
knowledge  of  the  birds  in  every  locality  where  they 
might  possibly  linger.  But  all  in  vain.  No  wonder 
he  became  discouraged  after  nearly  ten  years  of  unre¬ 
quited  work.  His  faith  was  not  confined  to  himself 
alone.  Other  leading  figures  in  the  realm  of  orni¬ 
thology  have  shared  his  optimism  that  the  Passenger 
Pigeon  still  exists  and  will  return  when  conditions 
are  right.  Dr.  W.  T.  Hornaday,  great  authority  on 
all  wild  life  topics,  director  of  the  extensive  New 
York  Zoological  Garden,  and  gifted  writer,  states  in 
his  “American  Natural  History”,  published  in  1903, 
that  in  a  certain  county  in  Northern  Pennsylvania  a 
naturalist  fed  a  flock  of  three  hundred  wild  pigeons 
during  an  entire  autumn  about  1903,  and  expected 
them  to  return  the  following  year.  Charles  H.  Eldon, 
premier  naturalist  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  who 
mounted,  at  his  studio  in  Williamsport,  a  handsome 
male  wild  pigeon  killed  at  Linden,  Lycoming  County, 


WILLIAM  HAZEN 

Born  1842,  an  Authority  on  the  Passenger  Pigeons. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


173 


in  September,  1890,  relates  that  while  in  a  canoe  on 
the  West  Branch  of  the  Susquehanna  River  a  few 
days  after  the  great  “June  flood”  of  1889,  inspecting 
the  damage  done  by  the  deluge,  he  saw  a  flock  of 
thirteen  wild  pigeons  flying  westward  above  the  river. 
Like  Prof.  Hodge,  he  took  off  his  hat  and  jumped  to 
his  feet  in  the  boat,  shouting,  “Wild  Pigeons  !”  About 
that  same  year,  in  the  fall,  John  H.  Chatham  discern¬ 
ing  nature  lover,  known  as  “The  Poet  Laureate  of 
Central  Pennsylvania”,  while  strolling  through  a 
wood  on  his  estate  at  McElhattan,  Clinton  County, 
heard  a  sound  in  a  beech  tree,  somewhat  like  a  squirrel 
cracking  a  nut.  Looking  up,  he  saw  a  handsome  male 
passenger  pigeon  at  work  in  the  mast.  The  distin¬ 
guished  naturalist  seated  himself  on  a  log  and  watched 
the  bird  for  upwards  of  twenty  minutes.  The  cock 
pigeon  had  evidently  become  separated  from  its  mate, 
for  it  “clucked”  a  number  of  times  as  if  to  tell  her 
where  he  was  and  that  food  was  plenty.  At  last  it 
rose  above  the  tree  tops  and  flew  off  in  a  westerly 
direction.  In  the  fall  of  1882  Captain  Harry  D.  Green, 
of  Reading,  a  Spanish  War  hero,  Legislator,  Congress¬ 
man,  journalist  and  sportsman,  was  hunting  in  Cum¬ 
berland  County.  He  heard  a  rustle  in  some  under¬ 
brush,  and  thinking  that  he  had  put  up  a  woodcock, 
he  fired  at  the  rising  bird.  A  large  male  wild  pigeon 
fluttered  down  at  his  feet.  He  put  it  in  the  pocket  of 
his  hunting  jacket,  and  that  evening  had  it  served 
for  supper  at  the  inn  where  he  was  stopping.  Had 
lie  known,  he  says,  that  the  passenger  pigeon  was  so 


174 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


near  extinction  he  would  have  had  the  specimen 
mounted.  Every  one  in  Central  Pennsylvania  knows 
Jake  Zimmerman,  proprietor  of  the  cozy  Zimmerman 
Hospice,  on  the  mountain  top  above  Milton.  Thou¬ 
sands  of  tourists,  fishermen,  hunters  and  motorists 
have  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  this  Alpine  retreat, 
pronouncing  it  one  of  the  most  picturesque  resorts 
in  the  whole  of  the  Pennsylvania  highlands.  One 
afternoon,  during  oats  harvest  in  1900,  Zimmerman 
was  in  his  field  when  he  saw  a  single  wild  pigeon  flying 
above  his  head  in  a  northwesterly  direction.  He  had 
not  seen  a  passenger  pigeon  previous  to  that  for 
nearly  twenty  years.  “Charlie”  Springer,  also  pro¬ 
prietor  of  a  mountain  resort  on  the  Coudersport  pike, 
northwest  of  Jersey  Shore,-  states  that  he  saw  about 
a  dozen  wild  pigeons  in  one  of  his  fields  in  the  spring 
of  1905.  These  are  but  a  few  instances,  jotted  down 
at  random,  showing  the  recent  appearance  of  the  pas¬ 
senger  pigeon  in  Pennsylvania.  Is  it  extinct?  Only 
the  mountains,  the  stag-topped  original  white  pines 
and  the  roaring  streams  can  answer,  and  we  do  not 
understand  their  language  as  yet.  If  a  sincere  doubter 
wishes  to  have  his  wavering  belief  refreshed  let  him 
read  “Birds  of  New  York”,  published  at  Albany  about 
1906.  No  less  an  authority  than  John  Burroughs  is 
quoted  as  having  seen  large  flocks  of  passenger  pigeons 
in  the  Catskill  Mountains  in  the  first  few  years  of  the 
twentieth  century.  A  young  male  passenger  pigeon 
was  killed  at  Canandaigua,  New  York,  in  the  fall  of 
1898.  The  writer  has  a  young  male  pigeon,  nicely 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


175 


mounted,  in  his  collection  which  was  taken  on  the 
Root  River,  Minnesota,  in  August,  1891.  The  writer, 
though  not  belonging  to  the  generations  that  knew 
the  passenger  pigeons,  was  fortunate  enough  to  have 
begun  his  business  career  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  the 
fall  of  1900.  In  those  days  there  was  a  cage  full  of 
passenger  pigeons  at  the  famed  Cincinnati  Zoo,  and 
on  Sundays,  when  there  was  nothing  else  to  do,  it  was 
his  pleasure  and  privilege  to  go  there  and  stand  for 
hours  before  the  cage,  drinking  in  the  romance  and 
exaltation  that  the  sight  of  these  noble  birds  evoked 
in  his  spirit.  What  a  joy  to  be  young  like  in  those 
grand  days,  with  a  big  world  and  boundless  hopes, 
now,  alas,  circumscribed  and  caged  as  were  the  grace¬ 
ful  wild  pigeons  that  enthralled  his  imagination ! 
Perhaps  his  second  most  vivid  impression  of  the  pas¬ 
senger  pigeons  was  received  at  Paris  in  the  Natural 
History  Museum  of  the  Jardin  Des  Plantes.  It  was  a 
dark,  cold  afternoon  in  the  fall  of  1910,  gusts  of  wind 
were  rapidly  defoliating  the  horse  chestnut  trees  of 
the  boulevards.  There  was  anatmosphere  of  gloom  in 
the  vast  museum  as  he  passed  from  atelier  to  atelier , 
by  the  noble  effigy  of  the  Asiatic  lion  of  the  Vale  of 
Gujerat  to  the  brindle  wolf,  a  recent  acquisition, 
from  Clermont-Ferrand,  by  the  Quagga  from  the 
Orange  River,  and  the  Okapi  of  the  Congo  jungles — 
to  an  obscure  alcove  looking  out  on  Cuvier’s  cypress- 
shaded  house.  There,  in  a  huge  tall  case,  closely 
packed  together,  were  many  mounted  specimens  of 
obscure  members  of  the  pigeon  tribe,  and  on  the  next 


176 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


to  the  bottom  shelf  was  a  bird  with  ruddy  breast  that 
looked  strangely  familiar.  Sure  enough,  it  bore  the 
label,  Pigeon  Migrateur  (Columba  Migratorius)* 
Mise  en  France.  The  writer  did  not  need  to  visit  any 
other  parts  of  the  old  museum  that  afternoon.  His 
spirit  was  filled  with  images — of  that  sad,  lone 
bird,  taken  in  France :  How  it  crossed  the  seas,  its 
story  of  mystery  and  romance  that  stood  there  untold, 
never  to  be  told,  except  in  dim  chords  that  beat  and 
throbbed  within  the  soul  of  the  beholder.  Perhaps 
from  beloved  distant  Pennsylvania  that  pigeon  had 
gone  to  "find  its  ultimate  islands”  by  the  Somme,  the 
Saone  or  the  Allier,  or  on  the  gloomy  heights  of  Puy 
de  Dome.  It  may  have  been  the  sole  survivor  of  those 
fabled  millions  which  attempted  to  cross  the  ocean 
only  to'  perish  during  a  storm  at  sea ;  this  one  in  the 
end  to  furnish  a  bon  coup  de  fusil  for  some  veneur 
in  France!  But  if  the  passenger  pigeon  is  rare  today, 
it  was  once  the  most  plentiful  form  of  bird  life  that 
ever  existed  in  the  Keystone  State.  All  the  old  men  will 
tell  you,  first  of  all,  that  their  flights  "darkened  the 
sun”.  That  alone  is  incredible  to  the  modern  person 
who,  if  he  sees  a  score  of  grackles  or  crows,  is 
amazed  "at*  the  plentitude  of  bird  life”.  The  passen¬ 
ger  pigeons  were  so  numerous  in  their  roosts,  accord¬ 
ing  to  Mr.  Chatham,  that  though  one  shouted  at  the 
top  of  his  voice,  he  could  not  make  himself  heard  to 
a  person  standing  directly  in  front  of  him.  so  loud 
was  the  whistling  of  the  myriad  birds.  Winthrop 
Sargent,  Pennsylvania  Railroad  official,  states  that  in 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


177 


the  afternoons  in  the  seventies,  in  company  with 
W.  W.  Atterbury,  now  Brigadier  General  and  head 
of  the  American  Military  Railways  in  France,  he  used 
to  go  up  on  Wopsononock,  the  high  mountain  north 
of  Altoona,  to  watch  the  wild  pigeons  coming 
back  to  their  roosts.  ‘‘They  made  a  louder  noise  than 
the  heaviest  freight  train”,  he  avers,  and  from  that  we 
can  imagine  the  immensity  of  their  numbers.  William 
Collins,  a  veteran  Pennsylvania  Railroad  employee  at 
Altoona,  has  related  in  a  bulletin  issued  by  the  rail¬ 
road,  that  on  a  certain  occasion  in  the  ’70’s,  the  wild 
pigeons  were  so  numerous  in  the  country  between 
Kane  and  Sargeant,  Pa.,  that  they  broke  down  the  rail¬ 
road  telegraph  line  for  a  distance  of  eleven  poles  by 
lighting  up  and  flying  against  the  wires.  The  birds 
kept  the  line  out  of  commission  for  several  days.  Daniel 
Ott,  the  old  Snyder  County  pioneer,  who  died  in  1916, 
aged  96  years,  tells  of  netting  and  killing  1.300  wild 
pigeons  in  a  single  day.  Ke  killed  them  by  crushing 
their  skulls  with  his  thumbs ;  he  killed  so  many  that 
his  fingers  became  so  sore  he  had  to  desist,  then  he 
crushed  the  skulls  with  his  teeth  until  his  teeth 
became  loose.  Women  came  up  from  neighboring 
cabins  to  beg  a  few  birds  to  fertilize  their  sweet-pea 
beds,  claiming  that  the  male  birds,  with  their  ruby 
breasts  gave  a  deeper  color  to  the  “posies”.  Here  is 
a  case  which  seems  to  mean  “out  of  death  comes  life-; 
out  of  decay  comes  beauty”.  James  V.  Bennett,  lead¬ 
ing  builder,  of  Williamsport,  in  his  youth  was  a 
famous  pigeon  trapper.  As  the  birds  became  scarce 


178 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


in  the  east  he  followed  them  to  Oklahoma.  He  car¬ 
ried  on  the  business  on  a  large  scale,  with  a  number 
of  assistants,  supplying  the  markets  of  many  large 
cities.  He  invented  a  machine  to  crush  the  skulls, 
which  did  away  with  much  of  the  cruelty  of  the 
earlier  and  cruder  methods.  All  the  old  time  trappers 
kept  several  stool  pigeons  and  "flyers”  from  fall  until 
spring,  and  sometimes  these  birds  laid  eggs  or  even 
bred  in  captivity.  Mr.  Chatham  goes  into  details 
describing  the  stool  pigeons  owned  by  Philip  Smith, 
a  noted  trapper  who  resided  on  the  site  of  the  present 
writer’s  home  in  Clinton  County,  Pennsylvania.  The 
old  man  provided  a  roomy  pen  for  the  birds,  under  a 
big  oak  tree  in  his  yard,  and  on  several  occasions 
young  birds  were  hatched,  but  did  not  grow  to 
maturity.  Smith  was  anxious  to  tame  and  train  a 
pair  of  young  pigeons  so  that  they  would  lure,  with¬ 
out  cords,  stool  or  eyes  sewn  shut,  the  wild  birds  to 
the  feed  or  salt  beds.  Mr.  Chatham,  then  a  lad,  told 
him'of  a  nest  which,  of  course,  contained  two  eggs,  on 
a  hickory  tree  in  McElhattan  Gap,  near  the  present 
"intake  dam”.  Smith  and  his  youthful  protege 
watched  the  nest  until  the  young  birds  were  hatched. 
Mr.  Chatham  saw  and  stroked  the  lively  squabs.  He 
is  positive  that  there  were  two  of  them,  but  they  flew 
away  before  the  old  trapper  was  able  to  go  out  for 
them.  Mir.  Chatham  further  states  that  the  passenger 
pigeons  nested  on  the  north  slope  of  Mt.  Logan,  still 
nearer  to  Smith’s  home,  and  many  were  the  days  he 
watched  for  them,  shot  gun  in  hand,  behind  an  old 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


179 


stump  fence  in  his  father’s  buckwheat  field.  It  was 
a  wonderful  sight,  he  says,  to  see  them  come  rolling 
over  the  field,  the  birds  behind  literally  tumbling  the 
ones  in  front  of  them  over  and  over.  The  pigeons 
flew  low,  just  above  the  tops  of  the  trees,  when  pass¬ 
ing  over  a  forest,  and  when  flying  over  cleared  fields 
on  hills  never  varied  their  altitude,  but  sometimes 
almost  flew  level  with  the  ground.  Clemuel  R. 
Woodin,  chairman  of  the  vast  American  Car  and 
Foundry  Company,  tells  of  how  in  his  boyhood  days, 
in  Columbia  County,  with  his  brother-in-law  to  be, 
Charles  H.  Dickerman,  he  used  to  wait  on  the  hill-tops 
during  the  flights  of  the  pigeons,  armed  with  shingles, 
and  knock  the  birds  down  by  the  hundreds.  The 
writer’s  father,  the  late  Henry  F.  Shoemaker,  who 
spent  his  boyhood  days  in  Schuylkill  County,  told  of 
his  father  driving  off  with  a  spring  wagon  during  the 
great  flights  over  the  Blue  Mountains,  and  returning  in 
the  evening  with  the  wagon  box  heaped  high  with  dead 
pigeons.  Coleman  K.  Sober,  world-renowned  rifle 
shot,  states  that  passenger  pigeons  were  used  at  all 
the  live  bird  shooting  matches  thirty-five  years  ago. 
They  were  rapid  fliers,  full  of  erratic  swoops  and  dives 
and  furnished  better  sport  than  the  tame  pigeons  of 
later  days.  In  the  summer  of  1890  the  writer,  as  a 
small  boy,  was  present  at  many  live  bird  shoots  at 
Hollywood,  New  Jersey.  It  wa's  in  the  hev-dey  of 
Edgar  Gibbs  Murphy,  Fred  Hoey  and  Dr.  Gideon  Lee 
Knapp.  Tame  pigeons  were  used,  but  they  were  not 
altogether  satisfactory.  Herbert  K.  Job,  author  of 


180 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


many  standard  works  on  birds,  relates  that  passenger 
pigeons  were  sold  in  the  Boston  markets  during  1888. 
Some  were  sold  in  the  market  at  Erie,  Pennsylvania, 
the  same  year.  During  all  these  years,  when  the 
pigeons  were  becoming  scarcer,  many  stool  pigeons 
were  retained  by  old-time  netters.  Just  as  the  hide 
hunters  of  the  west  said  of  the  bison  after  the  last 
herds  were  destroyed,  ‘‘They  will  return”,  the  pigeon 
trappers  of  Pennsylvania  firmly  believed  in  their 
renaissance.  The  passenger  pigeon  being  a  long-lived 
bird,  it  was  a  comparatively  easy  thing  to  keep  them 
for  an  indefinite  period.  Martha,  the  last  of  the  wild 
pigeons  at  the  Cincinnati  Zoo,  was  29  years  old  when 
she  died  in  September,  1914.  Several  of  her  comrades 
were  as  old,  or  older,  when  they  died.  A  resident  of 
Williamsport  is  authority  for  the  following:  A  man 
named  Jake  Kreamer  had  ten  stool  pigeons  which  he 
kept  in  a  coop  back  of  his  cabin  on  Loyalsock  Creek 
near  Montoursville.  The  birds  had  survived  the 
years.  The  youngest  was  close  to  thirty  years  of  age 
when,  on  New  Year’s  Eve,  1908,  a  cat  got  into  the  pen 
and  killed  all  but  two.  The  old  man,  despairing  of 
the  return  of  the  “vanished  millions”,  hastily  killed 
the  two  survivors  and  had  them  mounted.  A  few 
months  later  he  learned  that  if  he  had  kept  them  alive 
he  could  have  sold  them,  at  his  own  price,  to  the  Cin¬ 
cinnati  Zoo  or  to  any  number  of  private  enthusiasts. 
There  have  been  rumors,  hard  to  down,  that  in 
remote  spots  in  the  Pennsylvania  wilds,  at  the  present 
time,  or  until  recently,  other  stool  pigeons  have  been 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


181 


kept.  One  old  man  in  Brush  Valley,  Centre  County, 
Abe  Royer,  by  name,  did  have  some  until  about  1892. 
A  man  in  the  backwoods  of  McKean  County  is  said 
to  have  had  some  much  later  than  that.  In  most 
sections  of  the  Keystone  State  the  fights  were  not  seen 
after  1881.  Seth  Nelson  Jr.,  a  noted  netter  of  Round 
Island,  Clinton  County,  says  he  witnessed  the  last 
flight  in  the  fall  of  18T6.  William  Wagner,  of  Antes 
Fort,  Lycoming  County,  saw  the  last  flight  in  the  fall 
of  1881.  He  still  ha's  his  net,  in  fairly  good  condition. 
The  nets  were  made  by  hand,  usually  by  traveling  net 
makers,  or  by  the  trappers  themselves  during  the 
winter  months.  Many  of  the  nets  are  in  existence, 
also  the  stools,  the  baskets  in  which  the  stool  pigeons 
were  carried  to  the  scene  of  operation,  etc.  Charles 
K.  Eldort  has  several  such  complete  sets  which  he 
has  secured  at  various  times  from  old  netters  in 
Lycoming  County.  He  presented  one  outfit  to  the 
writer  of  this  article.  When  unwinding  this  net,  in 
company  with  Mr.  Chatham,  so  that  it  could  be  dis¬ 
played  to  advantage,  a  solitary  feather  was  found, 
clinging  to  the  yellowed  cords.  All  that  was  left 
of  the  probable  thousands  of  birds  that  the  net  had 
contained,  only  a  single  feather,  yet  more  tangible 
than  all  the  words  that  have  been  spoken  or  written 
concerning  these  wonderful  vanished  wonderers. 
Pigeon  Migrateur,  as  the  French  call  them,  they  have 
strayed  across  the  seas,  into  the  lands  of  romance,  per¬ 
haps  even  to  that  "‘bourne  from  which  no  traveler  ever 
returns”,  but  we  have  a  feather  to  prove  to  those 


182 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


who  have  never  seen  them  that  they  were  here — and, 
as  the  old  men  say,  “they  darkened  the  sun”.  One 
dark  afternoon  when  the  writer  was  traveling  home¬ 
ward  on  “501,”  an  old  man  with  keen  eyes,  an 
eagle’s  nose  and  a  long  white  beard,  got  into  the  train 
at  Liverpool,  Dauphin  County,  the  thought  arose, 
“He  has  seen  the  pigeons  fly.”  How  he  wished  that 
he  might  become  acquainted  with  such  a  man,  for  he 
had  lived  in  the  golden  age  of  Pennsylvania,  to  para¬ 
phrase  the  Ancient  Bard  who  “sang  of  wolves,  and 
roes,  and  elks”,  in  days  of  flat  topped  bronze  barked 
original  white  pines,  of  panthers,  of  wolves,  of  wild 
pigeons — yes,  zvild  pigeons,  whose  flights  literally 
darkened  the  sun.  Oh  God  eternal,  to  have  lived  in 
such  days,  before  man  conquered  nature  in  “Penn’s 
Woods”  and  turned  it  from  a  Sylvan  Paradise  to  a 
smoky,  manufacturing  Commonwealth.  Today,  on  the 
horizon,  the  smoke  of  her  factories  and  mills  literally 
darkens  the  sun.  Will  the  pigeon  cloud  ever  return, 
that  purple  mass,  flying  low  in  precise  battalions, 
headed  for  death  and  destruction?'  And  to  look  at 
those  calm  old  men,  eagle  visaged  and  bearded,  and  to 
think  what  they  have  seen,  of  the  obstacles  that  they 
have  been  through,  is  but  to  feel  that  one  is,  in  the 
words  of  William  Morris,  “An  idle  singer  of  an  empty 
day.” 

Despite  the  prodigality  of  their  nesting  opera¬ 
tions,  there  is  as  far  as  known,  not  a  single  Passenger 
Pigeon’s  nest  in  any  collection  today.  Dr.  B.  H.  War¬ 
ren,  the  brilliant  author  of  “Birds  of  Pennsylvania” 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


183 


thinks  that  he  once  saw  a  nest  in  a  collection  some 
years  ago.  There  are  a  fair  number  of  eggs,  which 
change  hands  at  $50  per  egg.  Mounted  specimens  are 
also  rare,  but  that  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that 
when  these  birds  were  as  common  as  are  our  English 
sparrows  today,  few  wanted  them  in  their  collections, 
preferring  rarities.  Mounted  birds  sell  at  $50  per  speci¬ 
men,  though  in  some  cases,  as  much  as  $150  has  been 
refused  for  especially  fine  male  examples.  Strangely 
enough,  adult  male  specimens,  showing  the  rosy  breast 
at  its  best,  are  much  rarer  than  female,  and  young  male 
and  young  female  specimens.  Added  to  the  horrors  of 
squab  hunting  and  killing  were  orgies  of  drunkeness 
that  made  the  scenes  in  the  nesting  grounds  hideous  to 
recount.  Ben.  Holcomb,  of  Hickory  Valley,  Warren 
County,  tells  that  when  the  pigeons  nested  on  Bobb’s 
Creek  near  there  up  to  about  1885,  a  certain  shrewd 
individual  always  appeared  at  the  nesting  grounds  with 
a  barrel  of  hard  cider  which  he  sold  to  the  squab 
hunters  at  five  cents  per  tin-cup.  Whenever  a  tree 
was  felled  which  contained  an  unusually  large  num¬ 
ber  of  squabs,  the  Indian  hunters  from  the  Reserva¬ 
tion  would  cheer  and  dance  about  like  wild  men. 
Whole  families  of  whites  and  Indians  drove  to  Bobb’s 
Creek  when  the  pigeons  began  their  nestings,  camp¬ 
ing  in  the  woods  and  pickling  and  barrelling  tons  of 
squabs.  Adolphe  Shurr,  formerly  a  woodsman  in 
Clinton  County,  states  that  there  was  a  small  nesting 


184 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


of  pigeons  in  the  big  hemlocks  at  the  head  of  Young 
Woman’s  Creek,  that  county,  when  he  peeled  bark 
there  in  the  spring  of  1892.  Jonathan  Auman,  born 
February  17,  1833,  “the  Sage  of  Minnick’s  Gap”,  in 
Brush  Valley,  relates  that  in  the  fifties  when  in  Illi¬ 
nois  he  stopped  one  night  with  an  aged  couple  who 
resided  in  a  great  beech  wood.  The  old  lady  wishing 
to  please  the  guest  told  him  that  she  would  give  him 
something  “extra  fine”  for  supper.  Carrying  the 
“tallow  dip”,  the  young  man  accompanied  the  dame  to 
the  attic,  where  on  cords  hung  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  jerked  wild  pigeons’  breasts.  These  made  a  de¬ 
licious  piece  de  resistance,  being  served  and  eaten  like 
the  bultong  of  the  South  African  Veldt.  Dr.  B.  S.  Bar¬ 
ton  in  his  “miscellanies”  where  he  so  vividly  described 
the  vast  flight  of  Carolina  paroquets  in  a  snowstorm, 
which  so  frightened  the  superstitious  Dutch  settlers  in 
the  Mohawk  Valley,  New  York,  in  the  winter  of  1780, 
tells  of  a  mild  winter  in  1797,  when  passenger  pigeons 
remained  about  Philadelphia  as  late  as  February. 
There  was  much  sickness  that  winter,  though  the  great 
scientist  does  not  intimate  that  they  were  birds  of  ill 
omen.  Mr.  Hench,  of  Altoona,  states  that  when  a  boy. 
in  Perry  County,  he  saw  many  flocks  of  wild  pigeons 
in  wheat  planting  season  and  saw  their  depredations  of 
the  wheat  fields.  He  tells  of  millions  of  pigeons  roost¬ 
ing  on  the  Allegheny  mountain,  between  Cambria  and 
Somerset  counties  as  late  as  March  first,  1875  or  1876. 


DR.  W.  T.  HORNADAY,  Sc.  D 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


185 


Newspapers  told  of  a  flock  of  wild  pigeons  having 
been  seen  in  Delaware  County  in  January,  1917. 
When  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  in  the  late  fall  of 
1910,  a  livery  stable  driver  at  New  Market,  about  50 
years  of  age,  told  the  writer  that  he  had  killed  two  wild 
pigeons  in  the  Masnutten  Mountains,  back  of  the  End¬ 
less  Caverns,  in  the  winter  of  1905.  He  was  sure  that 
they  were  Passenger  Pigeons,  as  he  had  helped  to  trap 
many  of  them  in  his  boyhood  days.  Unfortunately 
few  of  the  younger  generations  know  what  a  Pas¬ 
senger  Pigeon  looked  like,  and  this  was  brought  out  to 
Prof.  Hodge’s  chagrin  many  times  during  his  inves¬ 
tigations.  The  old  men  are  always  to  be  depended 
upon,  they  knew  the  birds  intimately,  they  cannot  err, 
and  it  should  be  noted  that  very  few  greybeards 
claim  to  have  seen  them  in  recent  years.  We  must 
admit  that  those  elderly  men  like  C.  W.  Dickinson, 
who  say  that  they  have  seen  them  of  late,  have  a  most 
excellent  case.  There  is  still  ground  for  belief  that 
they  exist,  though  the  most  careful  investigation  can 
ar.  most  leave  the  case  open,  as  in  the  instances  of  the 
flocks  seen  by  Mr.  Snook  in  eastern  Brush  Valley,  a 
couple  of  years  ago.  With  no  positive  proof  against 
we  can  content  ourselves  with  a  goodly  portion  of 
hope ,  and  a  faith  that  Bctopistes  Migratorius,  or  as 
some  of  the  netters  in  Michigan  called  them  “Travel¬ 
ling  Pigeons”  must  return  from  their  long  journey. 
They  were  in  such  great  numbers  when  they  went 


186 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


away  the  last  time,  some  must  be  left.  If  they  come 
back  they  will  find  themselves  safeguarded  by  pro¬ 
tective  laws,  a  more  enlightened  public  sentiment,  and 
a  thoroughly  aroused  interest  in  their  life’s  history. 
By  the  methods  of  selection  used  by  fanciers  in  evolv¬ 
ing  new  varieties  of  domestic  pigeons  typical  "wild- 
pigeons”  might  be  produced,  to  the  benefit  of  the 
world,  and  the  infinite  joy  of  the  aviarist.  What  bird 
lover  will  try  this  experiment? 


|0  G  ©  O  0  G  0  ' :  ©  v..:; ©  O  ©  ©  5 & O  0  •  0  O  ©  © O  Q 


6  00:  0  OQ- '  G  •  CO  .  0  0  '  R'lHr-.Q 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


LAST  SURVIVOR  OF  WILD  PIGEONS  DEAD 


Martha,  Captive  in  Cincinnati  Zoo,  Survived  Loss  of 
Mate  Just  Four  Years — Lived  to  Be  29  Years  Old 


New  York,  September  13,  1914. 


NEWS  of  the  death  in  Cincinnati  of  Martha,  the 
last  wild  pigeon  in  the  world,  according  to  all 
ornithological  records,  was  conveyed  yesterday  to  T. 
Gilbert  Pearson,  general  executive  officer  of  the 
National  Audubon  Societies,  in  a  telegram  from 
Eugene  Swope,  the  Ohio  agent  of  the  Societies  at  Cin¬ 
cinnati.  The  death  of  Martha,  according  to  Mr. 
Pearson,  is  a  calamity  of  as  great  importance  in  the 
eyes  of  naturalists  as  the  death  of  a  kaiser  to  Germans 
throughout  the  world. 

Martha  had  been  in  poor  health  for  several  years  in 
her  cage  at  the  Zoological  Garden  in  Cincinnati.  Many 
efforts  had  been  made  to  find  a  mate  for  her,  or  to 
discover  some  other  specimen  of  the  wild  pigeon,  but 
they  were  without  avail.  According  to  all  ornitho¬ 
logical  data  available,  Martha  was  the  last  of  her  tribe 
in  the  world. 

(She  died  at  2  p.  m.,  August  29,  1914.) 

Members  of  the  National  Audubon  Societies  some 
time  ago  offered  a  prize  of  $1,500  to  any  one  who 
could  find  a  wild  pigeon  nest.  All  that  was  necessary 


187 


188 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


was  to  find  the  nest,  telegraph  to  C.  F.*  Hodge,  a 
naturalist  of  Clark  University,  and  to  await  the  find¬ 
ings  of  ornithologists  whom  he  would  immediately 
despatch  to  the  scene  to  investigate  the  genuineness 
of  the  find.  The  Audubon  Societies  received  on  an 
average  100  false  alarms  a  year,  but  in  not  a  single 
case  was  the  nest  reported  found  to  be  a  wild  pigeon’s. 
Instead,  almost  every  nest  was  found  to  be  that  of 
an  ordinary  turtle  dove.  The  wild  pigeon  resembles 
the  ordinary  wild  dove  but  is  considerably  larger. 

The  extinction  of  the  wild  pigeon  tribe  was  the 
more  amazing  because  of  the  vast  extent  to  which  it 
had  flourished  in  this  country  prior  to  1865.  Wild 
passenger  pigeons  used  to  travel  over  the  country  by 
millions.  Audubon  himself  told  of  their  roosting  in 
certain  parts  of  Kentucky  in  territory  covering  a 
space  of  three  to  five  miles  wide  and  forty  miles  long, 
which  was  almost  literally  hidden  by  them.  Hundreds 
of  farmers,  he  tells,  used  to  camp  on  the  outside  of 
the  vast  roosting  pigeon  host  and  shoot  them  by 
the  thousands  from  the  edge  of  their  resting  place. 
The  birds  were  fed  by  thousands  to  the  farmers’  hogs 
after  each  night’s  killing. 

The  slaughter  raged  for  years  with  nets,  traps  and 
guns,  and  by  1884  there  were  very  few  of  the  wild 
pigeons  seen  in  the  country.  Several  years  ago  they 
had  dwindled  down  to  a  few  specimens  left  in  cap¬ 
tivity  in  Milwaukee  and  in  the  Cincinnati  Zoo. 
Martha’s  mate  died  about  four  years  a'go,  and  though 
a  prize  of  $1,000  was  offered  for  any  one  who  could 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


189 


find  another  bird  to  take  its  place,  Martha  remained 
in  solitary  widowhood  until  she  died. 

Martha  herself  was  hatched  in  captivity  in  the 
Cincinnati  Zoo.  At  the  time  of  her  death  she  was 
29  years  old.  Her  last  illness  had  been  a  matter  of 
concern  to  onithologists  the  world  over,  and  the  Cin¬ 
cinnati  agent  of  the  Audubon  Societies  had  been 
instructed  to  communicate  at  once  with  leading  orni¬ 
thologists  and  naturalists  of  the  country  as  soon  as 
she  died. — Altoona  Tribune. 


List  of  Mounted  Passenger  Pigeons*  at  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  (Third  Floor),  Logan  Square, 
Philadelphia. 

No.  49,899,  fine  mature  male,  from  Dr.  Charles 
Shaeffer. 

No.  24,291,  young  male. 

No.  24,292,  young  male,  (fine  specimen),  gift  of 
Dr.  T.  B.  Wilson. 

No.  13,301,  mature  female. 

No.  13,299,  young  female,  gift  of  Dr.  T.  B.  Wilson. 


Emerson  Hough  on  the  Wild  Pigeons 

Captain  Emerson  Hough,  the  noted  authority  on 
western  life,  in  a  recent  conversation  with  the  writer, 
stated  that  the  last  Passenger  Pigeon  which  he  saw  was 
killed  by  a  retired  railroad  conductor,  in  Wisconsin, 
the  first  week  in  September,  1897.  The  conductor 


190 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


while  journeying  along  a  railway  cut,  saw  a  large 
bird  perched  on  a  tree  among  a  band  of  mourning 
doves.  He  killed  the  bird,  and  showed  it,  a  couple  of 
hours  afterwards,  to  Captain  Hough  and  a  friend. 
This  incident  the  Captain  says,  is  fully  described  in 
Mershon’s  great  book  on  “The  Passenger  Pigeons,” 
published  in  1907.  When  Captain  Hough  was  a  young 
man  in  Iowa,  in  the  Seventies,  he  recalls  often  see¬ 
ing  flocks  of  several  hundred  Passenger  Pigeons  mi¬ 
grating  in  the  spring  and  fall.  Sometimes  they  would 
alight  on  the  feeding  beds  provided  for  cattle,  even 
in  feed  troughs,  where  they  were  potted  by  the  farmer 
boys  with  their  old-fashioned  shot  guns.— H.  W.  S., 
Niov.  6,  1918. 


H.  H.  Gallup,  McKean  County  Man,  Hears  Wild 
Pigeon 

H.  H.  Gallup,  of  Betula,  McKean  County,  writes 
as  follows :  “I  thought  I  heard  a  cock  pigeon  crow 
two  years  ago  last  Spring  while  in  the  sugar  bush, 
but  C.  W.  Dickinson  thinks  differently,  and  as  I  never 
heard  it  again,  no  doubt  I  was  mistaken.  I  have  seen 
the  fields  so  covered  with  birds  that  you  could  not  see 
the  ground,  and  when  they  are  feeding,  they  seem  to 
roll  over  one  another,  the  rear  to  the  front,  in  countless 
thousands,  a  sight  that  the  present  and  future  genera¬ 
tions  can  never  realize — for  they  are  gone  forever.” 
(1918.) 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


191 


A  Postscript. 

John  C.  French  in  a  letter  to  H.  W.  Shoemaker 
on  the  dates  of  the  appearance  and  departure  of  the 
Passenger  Pigeons  in  Northern  Pennsylvania,  says : 

I  never  saw  one,  here,  later  than  October,  nor  ear¬ 
lier  than  May,  when  they  were  so  plenty  that  farm 
crops  of  grain  were  sometimes  destroyed  in  a  few 
hours.  Three  miles  east  from  my  farm  they  nested, 
some  years  (not  every  year)  prior  to  1874,  and  went 
daily  to  feeding  grounds  in  McKean  and  Forest 
Counties  (hens  one  day  and  cocks  the  next),  going 
over  my  farm  flying  low  in  the  morning,  returning 
at  night,  flying  high.  The  whole  valley  would  be 
filled,  from  north  hills  to  the  south  hills,  more  than 
a  mile,  with  strata  above  strata  of  pigeons,  sometimes 
eight  courses  deep  and  for  an  hour  of  a  morning,  or 
more,  they  flowed  westward,  a  mile  a  minute,  with  a 
roar  of  wings  like  a  tornado  and  the  deep  shadow  of 
a  heavy  thunder  shower.  Their  nests  were  in  a  little 
hollow  where  hemlock  trees  stood  thickest  and  usually 
covered  about  twenty  acres,  say  800  to  1,000  trees, 
nests  on  every  limb,  except  ten  or  twelve  feet  at  the 
treetops ;  and  were  regular  in  outside  borders,  even 
leaving  one-half  the  limbs  of  an  occupied  tree,  out¬ 
side  of  the  ‘city’  and  one-half  inside  of  it  with 
nests  on  all  limbs  inside  the  ‘city’  boundaries  and  no 
nests  on  limbs  outside  of  the  boundaries.  The  ‘city’ 
was  in  form  of  a  parallelogram,  say  approximately 
forty  rods  by  eight  rods.  I  saw  another  'city’  in  the 


192 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


head  hollow  of  Sugar  Run,  McKean  County  that  was 
about  square  and  smaller,  about  thirty  rods  by  thirty 
rods,  but  the  trees  were  much  thicker  and  larger,  giv¬ 
ing  nest  room  for  nearly  as  many.  I  never  saw  a 
round  ‘city’  nor  heard  of  any.  As  shooting  is  more 
controlled,  I  expect  to  see  the  Passenger  Pigeon  return 
in  summer,  despite  the  claim  of  being  extinct  since 
1890,  or  so.  In  1901,  I  saw  a  pair  in  June,  on  Grant’s 
Run,  near  Grantonia  post  office  in  Elk  county;  in 
1904,  Mr.  J.  W.  Cunningham,  a  revenue  officer,  saw 
a  small  flock  near  the  Big  Sandy  river  in  Kentucky. 
In  1906,  William  Hazen  and  his  son,  saw  five  pigeons 
several  times  feeding  on  their  buckwheat  field  in 
August,  here  in  Roulette.  Now  there  is  room  for  a 
doubt,  but  all  of  these  men  knew  the  wild  pigeon  well 
and  believe  they  saw  them.  I  am  also  certain  of  the 
pair  that  I  saw  in  1901.  They  lit  in  a  juniper  tree 
within  six  rods  of  where  I  sat  upon  a  log  with  my 
wife,  to  whom  I  pointed  them  out  and  discussed  the 
peculiarly  red-tinted  breast  of  the  cock  and  the  mod¬ 
est  grey  suit  of  his  mate ;  also  remarking  to  Mrs. 
French  that  they  were  not  extinct  then,  as  we  had 
heard  so  often  for  the  previous  decade.  An  old  time 
Wisconsin  timber  cruiser  who  knew  wild  pigeons  well 
thirty-five  years  ago  or  more,  was  looking  over  some 
pine  timber  (Araucarian)  in  Chili  in  1912  and  re¬ 
ported  that  he  saw  millions  of  the  genuine  old  time 
Passenger  Pigeons  far  within  the  Andean  solitudes. 

Faye  H.  Rohartt,  a  noted  historical  writer  of  Me- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


193 


Kean  County,  in  a  recent  widely  published  article  on 
the  wild  game  of  his  home  locality,  has  this  to  say  con¬ 
cerning  the  Passenger  Pigeons : 

PIGEONS. 

The  extermination  of  the  wild  pigeons  which  came 
to  this  section  every  spring,  from  April  to  June,  in 
countless  numbers,  is  one  of  the  things  the  present 
generation  has  to  mourn. 

They  came  in  great  flights  that  shut  off  the  sun¬ 
light,  like  a  dark  cloud,  while  they  were  passing.  They 
were  about  the  size  of  a  tame  dove,  but  a  neater  bird. 
Their  color  was  a  light  slate,  with  beautifully  silver 
tinged  band  around  the  neck. 

Many  of  the  older  residents  recall  the  time  when 
pigeons  nested  throughout  this  vicinity.  T.  L.  Sart- 
well  recalls  a  time  when  he  was  a  boy  when  pigeons 
nested  on  Potato  Creek  at  Smethport. 

The  cocks  or  male  pigeons  would  fly  first  from 
about  seven  to  nine  in  the  morning  and  the  hens  or 
female  birds  would  fly  from  nine  to  eleven.  The 
valley  and  hillside  would  be  literally  blue  in  color  from 
the  countless  numbers.  A  good  beech  nut  year,  al¬ 
ways  meant  a  good  pigeon  year. 

When  they  nested  every  tree  and  limb  of  the  forest 
would  be  weighed  down.  At  such  a  time  men  from 
all  parts  of  the  country,  hearing  of  the  nesting,  would 
gather  to  get  the  squabs  or  young  pigeons  that  had  not 
yet  learned  to  fly.  In  order  to  get  them  the  hunters 
would  cut  down  the  trees  in  which  they  roosted  and 


194  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


take  them  by  the  hundreds.  In  1868,  a  famous  nesting 
occurred  on  Bell’s  Run. 

A.  Reilly,  of  Smethport,  in  speaking  of  them  says 
in  part:  “At  one  time  the  nesting  was  ten  miles  long 
and  five  miles  wide,  with  every  tree  and  limb  of  the 
forest  being  covered.  Many  made  a  business  of  catch¬ 
ing  them,  and  on  Potato  Creek,  there  were  placed  nets 
about  every  one  hundred  yards  apart  for  fifteen 
miles.  Each  net  captured  from  ten  to  one  hundred 
dozen  a  day.  I  have  shipped  from  twenty  to  thirty 
barrels  a  day,  each  barrel  holding  twenty-five  dozen 
and  selling  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  cents  a  dozen, 
but  discontinued  when  the  market  became  glutted.” 

In  the  Spring  of  1842  Stephen  Sickles,  of  Smeth¬ 
port,  caught  thousands  of  them,  but  as  there  was  no 
market  at  that  time,  hired  himself  and  his  net  to  his 
neighbors  for  $2  a  day,  and  captured  in  a  single  day 
from  500  to  2,000  pigeons. 

In  this  immediate  vicinity,  C.  M.  Slack  tells  of 
netting  them  with  E.  S.  Carpenter  on  the  flats  where 
the  refinery  is  now  located.  At  one  time  there  was  a 
large  nesting  up  at  Windfall. 

A.  N.  McFall  described  a  nesting  made  at  Mt. 
Alton  and  they  picked  them.  He  says  that  after  a 
successful  day  with  the  nets,  a  trough  would  be  built 
around  the  four  sides  of  a  good  room  and  into  this 
the  dead  pigeons  would  be  dumped.  Women  would 
be  hired  to  pick  them,  taking  the  feathers  for  use  in 
making  feather  beds. 


SETH  NELSON,  JR 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


195 


From  lengthy  descriptions  given  by  T.  L.  Sart- 
vvell,  C.  M.  Slack  and  A.  N.  McFall,  the  following  is 
obtained  as  to  the  process  of  netting  them. 

The  nets  varied  in  size  from  twelve  to  twenty  feet 
in  length  and  were  from  three  to  six  feet  or  more  in 
width.  One  side  of  the  net  would  be  staked  along  its 
entire  length  to  the  ground  and  thru  the  other  side 
which  was  free,  was  run  what  was  called  the  net  string, 
which  was  fastened  on  each  end  to  the  spring  poles 
by  which  the  net  was  sprung.  The  spring  poles  were 
of  hemlock  and  fastened  to  the  net  springs,  doubled 
back  to  give  force  by  which  the  net  was  spread  and 
were  a  number  of  feet  from  the  net.  The  net  would  be 
tucked  carefully  on  the  ground  along  the  staked  side 
and  so  arranged  that  when  it  was  released  it  would 
fly  out  and  spread  itself  over  the  ground  or  bed  on 
which  the  pigeons  on  being  attracted  would  alight. 
The  bed  was  previously  prepared  by  strewing  buck¬ 
wheat  or  corn  over  the  ground.  The  net  would  be 
sprung  so  quickly  that  the  pigeons  would  have  no 
chance  of  rising  and  it  settled  down  ovei*  them. 

The  net  would  be  worked  from  wThat  was  known  as 
the  bough  house,  built  near  by  to  screen  the  nets  from 
observation.  From  this  shelter  were  worked  the 
pigeon  stool  and  the  fliers. 

The  pigeon  stool  was  a  live  pigeon  used  as  a  de¬ 
coy  and  securely  fastened  to  straight  poles  that  were 
fixed  in  such  a  manner  they  could  be  raised  three  or 
four  feet  from  the  ground  and  then  lowered  to  the 
ground  with  the  pigeons  on  the  end.  In  so  doing,  the 


196 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


pigeon  would  flap  its  wings  as  if  settling  to  the 
ground  in  a  natural  way.  The  pigeon  stool  would  be 
placed  just  outside  of  the  area  to  be  covered  by  the 
net  so  as  to  be  caught  when  the  net  was  released. 

There  were  also  live  pigeons  that  had  a  long  string 
attached  to  their  legs.  The  fliers  were  sent  up  into  the 
air  and  then  pulled  in  again.  These  decoys  would 
attract  a  flock  of  pigeons  flying  near  and  it  would  settle 
on  the  bed  and  the  net  would  be  released.  Very  few 
pigeons  ever  got  away  as  the  men  would  rush  out 
from  the  bough  house  as  soon  as  the  net  had  been  re¬ 
leased,  and  get  onto  the  net  on  their  hands  and  knees 
and  bite  the  heads  off  as  the  pigeons  protruded  them 
thru  the  opening  in  the  net.  The  ground  would  be 
cleared  and  everything  again  fixed  for  the  next  flock 
that  came  along  which  would  not  be  very  long  in 
coming. 

Sometimes  a  double  net  was  worked,  which  con¬ 
sisted  of  two  nets  released  towards  each  other,  thus 
doubling  the  catch. 

The  last  of  the  pigeons  came  about  the  year  1880, 
altho  the  real  big  flights  were  made  fifty  years  ago. 
The  cutting  out  of  the  beech  trees,  as  well  as  the  de¬ 
structive  methods  used  in  capturing  them,  had  much  tc 
do  with  their  total  disappearance. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


WHAT  EXTERMINATED 

THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON 


The  True  Story,  Related  by  One  of  the  Most  Famous 
Pigeon  Trappers  in  America — C.  W.  Dickinson 

(From  the  Altoona  Tribune) 


FIRST,  we  wish  to  state  that  there  is  only  a  small  per¬ 
centage  of  the  American  people  of  today  that  can 
imagine  what  an  immense  body  of  pigeons  there  would 
be  in  a  large  pigeon  nesting.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
nesting  or  pigeon  city  we  had  in  McKean  and  Potter 
Counties  in  Pennsylvania,  in  1870,  which  was  the  larg¬ 
est  in  this  locality  since  1830.  This  nesting  was  from 
one  half  mile  to  two  miles  wide  and  about  forty  miles 
long,  running  through  an  unbroken*  forest.  The  direc¬ 
tion  of  this  line  was  nearly  east  and  west,  but  a  zig¬ 
zag  line  to  keep  near  the  main  range  of  mountains 
that  divides  the  waters  of  the  Allegheny  and  Susque¬ 
hanna  rivers.  Both  male  and  female  birds  help  to 
build  the  nest  which  is  a  very  crude  affair  and,  as 
a.  rule,  there  is  only  one  egg  in  each  nest;  perhaps 
one  nest  in  fifty  or  one  hundred  will  have  two  eggs 
in  it.  As  soon  as  the  eggs  are  laid,  the  hen  birds  sit 
on  the  nests  over  night,  while  the  toms  roost  in  the 
nesting  or  the  adjoining  territory.  Now  the  birds  are 


197 


198 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


divided,  the  males  by  themselves,  and  the  females  go 
by  themselves,  when  going  out  in  search  of  food. 

Four-fifths  of  the  birds  will  fly  out  in  a  certain 
direction  from  the  nesting  to  feed,  some  of  them 
(going  as  far  as  sixty  or  seventy  miles.  The  toms 
establish  the  line  of  flight  from  the  nesting.  They  will 
begin  to  fly  out  very  early  in  the  morning.  As  soon 
as  there  is  any  signs  of  gray  in  the  east,  they  fly  out 
in  immense  flocks.  Sometimes  it  could  be  called  a  con¬ 
tinuous  flock,  as  far  as  the  human  eye  could  see  there 
was  a  bird  in  all  directions,  all  going  in  the  same  direc¬ 
tion  for  twenty  or  thirty  minutes.  After  the  main  body 
had  passed,  then  would  come  flocks  of  from  eight  or 
ten  dozen  up  to  one  hundred  dozen.  This  will  con¬ 
tinue  until  about  9  a.  m.,  when  the  toms  will  begin  to 
return  to  the  nesting  to  take  the  place  of  the  hens  on 
the  nests,  while  the  hens  go  in  search  of  food.  They 
follow  the  same  line  of  flight  and  return  to  the  nest¬ 
ing  about  1  p.  m.,  take  their  place  on  the  nest  again 
while  the  toms  will  make  a  shorter  fly  out  in  the  after¬ 
noon,  returning  about  half  past  four  and,  if  the 
weather  is  not  too  rough,  the  hens  will  make  a  short 
flv  out,  returning  in  time  to  take  their  place  on  the 
nests  over  night.  It  takes  about  fourteen  days  for 
the  eggs  to  hatch  and  in  about  fifteen  days  from  hatch¬ 
ing  the  young  birds  are  left  to  their  own  fate.  At 

this  time  the  young  birds  are  fed  all  their  craw  can 

hold  and  they  are  so  fat  they  can’t  fly  very  much  for 

three  or  four  days.  As  soon  as  they  get  the  use  of 

their  wings,  they  know  where  to  go,  for  they  will 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


199 


follow  the  same  line  of  flight  the  old  birds  took  a 
week  before.  The  old  birds  will  not  feed  in  the  nest¬ 
ing  or  near  the  border  of  it.  This  food  is  left  for  the 
young  birds  to  live  on  while  they  are  getting  the  use 
of  their  wings.  The  young  birds  are  great  feeders 
from  the  time  of  hatching  until  the  old  birds  leave 
them.  The  first  twelve  days  of  a  young  pigeon’s  life, 
he  feeds  exclusively  on  curd  that  forms  in  the  craw 
in  a  thin  sack  that  adheres  to  the  inner  part  of  the 
craw,  filling  one-third  the  craw  proper.  This  curd 
forms  in  the  craw  of  the  males  as  well  as  the  females. 
When  feeding  their  young  the  old  birds  will  draw  their 
head  and  neck  down  close  to  their  body,  open  their 
mouth  wide,  then  the  young  bird  will  stick  his  beak 
down  the  old  bird’s  throat  and  eat  the  curd  out  of 
the  old  bird’s  craw.  This  curd  does  not  mix  with 
the  old  bird’s  food  as  it  is  in  a  container  by  itself, 
which  gives  way  after  about  twelve  or  thirteen  days ; 
after  this  the  young  birds  will  get  beechnuts  or  seeds 
from  other  trees  or  shrubs,  mixed  with  the  curd. 

Pigeons  never  nested  in  Pennsylvania,  only  in  the 
spring  of  the  year,  following  a  season  when  there  was 
a '  good  crop  of  beechnuts.  Under  no  other  condi¬ 
tions  could  such  a  body  of  birds  possibly  live  for  a 
period  long  enough  to  raise  their  young  which  takes 
about  thirty-one  days.  Take  the  pigeon  nesting  in 
1870,  for  instance.  The  daily  flight  was  in  a  north¬ 
erly  direction  from  the  nesting  and  eight  miles  from 
the  nesting  it  would  be  one  continual  flock  of  birds  as 
far  as  you  could  see  east,  west,  north  or  south  for 


200 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


twenty  to  thirty  minutes.  Then  it  would  be  more 
broken  so  at  any  time  from  5  to  8  p.  m.  you  could  see 
from  ten  to  forty  flocks  at  a  time. 

People  who  never  saw  a  flight  of  birds  from  a 
nesting,  can’t  believe  there  were  ever  so  many  birds 
in  one  locality.  The  writer’s  home  was  near  the 
locality  where  these  birds  nested.  From  one-half  mile 
to  four  miles  we  would  hit  eight  or  ten  different  nest¬ 
ings,  also  have  been  in  six  or  eight  that  were  farther 
away.  We  have  tried  not  to  enlarge  this  in  any  man¬ 
ner  for  no  one  knows  what  a  pigeon  nesting  is  until 
they  have  actually  been  in  one.  The  birds  build  their 
nests  in  every  tree  that  is  standing  on  the  territory 
the  nesting  covers.  The  larger  the  top  of  the  tree, 
the  more  nests  there  will  be  in  that  tree.  We  once 
counted  fifty-seven  nests  in  the  top  of  a  large  birch 
tree.  Undoubtedly  there  are  three  times  as  many 
nests  in  a  hemlock  tree  as  there  are  in  a  hardwood 
tree.  In  the  hemlock  there  are  so  many  more  chances 
for  the  birds  to  build  nests,  while  the  hemlock  boughs 
are  so  thick  it  would  be  impossible  to  count  the  nests. 

You  will  ask  whatever  became  of  these  birds  if 
they  were  so  plentiful.  There  were  millions  of  them 
caught  with  nets  and  sent  to  the  large  cities.  Still 
there  were  millions  of  them  here  on  their  old  nesting 
ground  in  Pennsylvania,  in  1886,  which  was  the  last 
large  body  of  birds  that  ever  visited  this  state.  A 
few  small  flocks  have  passed  through  this  locality 
since  that  date.  The  writer  saw  a  small  flock  of 
•  about  100  birds  in  September,  1905,  and  saw  a  lone 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


201 


pigeon  in  August,  1906.  The  large  body  of  birds  that 
came  here  in  April,  1886,  came  here  for  the  express 
purpose  of  nesting.  The  crop  of  beechnuts  the  fall 
before  was  very  large.  That  was  What  brought  them 
here.  When  food  was  real  plenty  the  birds  have  been 
known  to  nest  three  times  in  a  single  season.  The 
first  ones  would  begin  their  nesting  in  the  latter  part 
of  March.  They  would  nest  again  in  the  first  part  of 
May,  and  No.  3  nesting  would  start  about  June  10th. 

When  the  pigeons  came  here  to  nest,  they  would 
be  scattered  over  three  or  four  Counties  and  roost  any¬ 
where  night  overtook  them.  But  for  a  night  or  two 
before  they  began  building  their  nests  nearly  all  of 
them  would  roost  in  one  large  body.  From  this  place 
their  nesting  would  start,  but  what  direction  it  would 
go,  no  one  knew,  until  they  commenced  building.  An¬ 
other  sure  sign  of  its  being  about  time  for  the  birds 
to  begin  nesting  is  the  fine  little  white  strings  that 
come  from  the  forward  end  of  the  breast  and  con¬ 
nects  with  the  craw.  It  certainly  looks  as  if  these 
small  threads  were  the  natural  feeders  that  form  the 
curd  in  the  craw  for  the  young  to  feed  on. 

In  1886  these  two  sure  signs  were  in  evidence. 
The  fine  white  little  strings  had  been  visible  for  three 
days.  And  it  was  the  second  night  of  the  big  roost¬ 
ing  on  the  west  branch  of  Pine  Creek  in  Potter  County, 
that  these  birds  were  driven  out  of  this  state,  never 
more  to  return.  On  the  second  night  of  the  roosting, 
thirty  or  forty  men  and  boys  from  the  settlements 
along  Pine  Creek,  went  into  this  roosting  with  guns 


202 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


and  a  back  load  of  ammunition  and  a  few  edibles  for 
a  lunch  or  two.  At  9  p.  m.  they  began  shooting  into 
the  treetops  anywhere  and  everywhere,  scattering  out 
in  every  direction  and  shooting  into  the  treetops  as 
long  as  they  could  hear  a  bird  fly.  Then  they  gathered 
into  small  groups,  made  camp  fires  and  waited  for  day¬ 
light,  so  they  could  find  the  dead  and  crippled  birds. 

This  was  the  death  blow  to  pigeons  in  Pennsylva¬ 
nia.  Which  way  or  where  they  went  no  one  knows  for 
they  left  Pennsylvania  in  the  night.  The  night  was 
clear  with  a  full  moon,  so  the  birds  could  see  fairly 
well  which  way  they  wanted  to  go.  It  is  safe  to  pre¬ 
sume  they  followed  the  same  course  they  always  took 
when  leaving  this  state  in  the  spring  or  early  summer. 
They  would  go  in  a  northerly  direction,  cross  the  state 
of  New  York  and  go  up  into  the  big  forests  of  Canada. 
Their  being  driven  out  here  in  the  night  and  on  the 
eve  of  starting  a  nesting  suggests  that  before  they 
reached  their  destination  in  Canada  or  before  they  had 
a  chance  to  select  a  place  for  a  nesting,  the  tens  drop¬ 
ped  their  eggs.  Therefore,  tnere  were  no  young  birds 
to  eat  the  curd  which  had  already  started  to  form 
and  would  keep  on  forming  until  the  laws  of  nature 
had  completed  her  work.  Now,  if  there  were  no 
young  birds  to  keep  tnis  curd  eaten  out,  it  would  fill 
the  craw  so  full  the  old  birds  would  either  starve  to 
death  or  such  a  large  amotint  of  curd  in  the  craw 
would  cause  something  like  milk  fever,  which  would 
be  fatal  to  every  bird  that  belonged  to  the  body  of 
birds  that  were  about  to  nest.  There  were  always 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


203 


quite  a  few  stray  birds  with  a  nesting  body,  either 
too  young  to  nest,  or  lost  birds  that  had  been  scattered 
around  the  country  and  just -happened  to  find  the  main 
body  and,  of  course,  these  strays  or  young  birds,  would 
not  have  any  curd  in  their  craws.  So  we  can’t  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  Passenger  Pigeon  has  become  extinct. 
But  they  will  never  nest  in  Pennsylvania  again  for 
there  is  not  forests  enough  left  for  hawks  to  nest  in, 
so  say  nothing  about  a  body  of  pigeons. 

C.  W.  DICKINSON, 

Jan.  25,  1917.  Smethport,  Pa. 


Correct  Scientific  Name. 

(From  “Science,”  Nov.  1,  1918.) 

The  technical  name  of  the  Passenger  Pigeon  has 
for  many  years  been  Ecto pistes  migratorius  (Lin¬ 
naeus)  ( Columba  migratoria  Linnaeus,  “Syst.  Nat.,” 
Ed.  12,  I.,  1766,  P.  285).  There  is,  however,  another 
name  Columba  canadensis  Linnaeus  (“Syst.  Nat.,” 
Ed.  12,  I.,  1766,  P.  284),  based  on  the  Turtur  canaden¬ 
sis  of  Brisson  (“Ornith,.”  I.,  1760,  P.  118),  that  needs 
consideration.  Reference  to  Brisson  shows  con¬ 
clusively  that  his  detailed  description  is  that  of  the 
female  Passenger  Pigeon,  as  he  mentions  particularly 
the  rufescent  tail-spots.  Both  Columba  canadensis 
Linnaeus  and  Columba  migratoria  Linnaeus  are  of 
equal  pertinence,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  for 
the  rejection  of  the  former,  since  both  the  Interna- 


204 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


tional  and  the  American  Ornithologists’  Union  provide 
definitely  for  the  enforcement  of  the  principle  of 
anteriority  (page  precedence)  in  such  cases.  We 
should,  therefore,  hereafter  call  the  Passenger  Pigeon 
Bctopistes  canadensis  (Linnaeus). 

HARRY  C.  OBERHOLSER. 


In  the  same  issue  of  '‘Science”  John  M.  Clarke, 
Director  of  the  New  York  State  Museum,  transmits  a 
letter  from  M.  Rasmussen,  of  Amsterdam,  N.  Y.,  who 
claims  to  have  seen  a  flock  of  about  thirty  wild 
pigeons  in  a  buckwheat  field  on  October  1,  1918.  He 
is  sure  of  his  identification  apart  from  seeing  the 
flock,  "by  the  whistling  sound  of  their  wings,”  hav¬ 
ing  seen  wild  pigeons  "near  Ithaca,  about  twenty  years 
ago.”  Captain  Emerson  Hough,  in  commenting  on  the 
above  statement,  says  that  a  mourning  dove’s  wings 
"whistle  the  same  as  a  wild  pigeon’s,  also  that  no  one 
can  remember  a  peculiar  sound  exactly  after  twenty 
years,  and  even  tame  pigeons  have  an  audible  whistle 
to  their  wings  when  in  flight.”  He  adds  that  doves, 
"when  seen  at  a  distance  invariably  look  large,  and  it 
is  incredible  that  if  the  flocks  of  pigeons  which  are  re¬ 
ported  as  being  seen  somewhere  every  year,  do  not 
increase,  and  become  plentiful  again.”  H.  W.  S’. 


SAMUEL  N.  RHOADS 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


205 


CHARLES  H.  ELDON, 

TAXIDERMIST, 

331  W.  Fourth  Street,  Williamsport,  Pa. 

Williamsport,  Pa.,  Jan.  16,  1919. 
Col.  Henry  W.  Shoemaker^ 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Dear  Col.  Shoemaker: 

Replying  to  your  inquiry  concerning  my  early 
knowledge  of  the  passenger  pigeon,  I  wish  to  say :  In 
my  boyhood  days  I  lived  in  Bendersville,  Pa.,  ten 
miles  north  of  Gettysburg.  Near  our  village  was  tim¬ 
ber  land,  locally  known  as  the  “Big  Hill,”  which  was  a 
favorite  nesting  place  for  the  passenger  pigeon.  The 
coming  of  the  birds  in  the  spring-time  was  heralded 
with  delight  by  hunters.  I  have  been  on  the  mountain 
with  my  father  and  have  seen  the  birds  in  vast  num¬ 
bers,  the  trees  being  so  completely  covered  that  the 
birds  to  my  boyish  eyes  appeared  as  massive  leaves. 
In  memory  I  can  still  see  them  fluttering  and  lighting 
upon  the  swaying  branches,  and  here  and  there 
through  the  timber  could  be  distinctly  heard  the 
breaking  of  the  limbs  from  the  weight  of  the  birds. 
The  fluttering  of  the  wings  and  the  cooing  of  the  birds 
seemed  like  almost  a  continuous  roar.  I  remember 
seeing  a  stream  of  pigeons  about  twice  the  width  of  a 
street  and  reaching  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  in  both 
directions.  Becoming  tired  looking  at  the  birds  as 
they  were  passing  directly  over  me,  I  lay  upon  the 


206 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


ground  and  watched  this  seemingly  endless  stream  for 
a  long  time.  Finally  the  end  came  abruptly,  and  I 
watched  the  birds  way  into  the  distance  until  they 
were  lost  to  view.  They  were  traveling  northwest. 
Looking  again  in  the  southern  direction,  I  saw  the 
grandest  sight  that  I  ever  witnessed  in  the  flight  of 
birds.  A  flock  in  cloud  formation  and  apparently  of 
countless  number,  swept  along  in  majestic  flight.  They 
were  clearly  outlined  against  a  gray  sky,  and  as  they 
passed  over  me  flying  low,  I  could  distinctly  hear  the 
surf-like  swish  of  their  wings. 

In  1868  I  came  to  this  city  and  have  always  been 
greatly  interested  in  the  passenger  pigeon,  and  have 
endeavored  through  the  successive  years  to  obtain  all 
information  I  could  concerning  their  life  habits  and 
their  final  disappearance.  The  mountains  north  of  our 
city  for  many  miles  were  favorite  nesting  places  of  the 
wild  pigeon,  where  they  were  trapped  in  great  quanti¬ 
ties,  most  of  which  were  sold  on  our  curb-stone  mar¬ 
kets,  they  being  brought  in  frequently  by  wagon  loads. 
A  family  living  on  the  headwaters  of  Rock  Run, 
which  empties  into  Lycoming  Creek  at  Ralston,  Pa., 
made  a  barrel  of  soap  fat  from  squabs,  so  plentiful 
were  they  in  that  section.  From  the  nesting  grounds 
at  Kane,  Pa.,  from  three  to  twelve  tons  of  pigeons 
were  sent  daily  to  Baltimore,  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  markets.  Men  in  lumber  camps  and  families 
living  in  the  mountains,  whose  principal  diet  during 
the  winter  was  salted,  smoked  or  pickled  meats,  re- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


207 


garded  the  coming  of  the  wild  pigeons  as  a  God-send, 
for  then  they  would  have  a  supply  of  fresh  meat. 

In  the  early  part  of  June,  1889,  I  was  hunting  for 
migrating  birds  at  the  base  of  the  mountain  along  the 
bank  of  the  river,  about  three  miles  west  of  this  city, 
and  to  my  surprise  I  heard  the  familiar  swish  of  the 
passenger  pigeon  wings.  I  involuntarily  jumped 
around  and  yelled  “Wild  pigeons !”  Then  I  saw  thir¬ 
teen  pigeons  rapidly  flying  along  the  edge  of  the  timber, 
going  westward.  This  was  the  last  flight  of  pigeons 
that  I  saw. 

I  cannot  help  but  feel,  from  information  that  I  have 
gathered  at  sundry  times,  that  the  sudden  disappear¬ 
ance  of  the  wild  pigeon  was  not  caused  by  men,  guns 
and  nets.  When  Mr.  James  V.  Bennett,  pigeoneer, 
quit  netting  pigeons  in  the  Indian  Territory,  they  were 
still  abundant.  Two  years  later  they  were  practically 
all  gone.  The  hand  of  man  could  not  have  destroyed 
them  so  completely  in  so  short  a  space  of  time. 

Mr.  Isaac  Henninger,  of  this  city,  was  also  a  pig¬ 
eoneer,  and  remembers  very  distinctly  when  the  birds 
disappeared,  of  reading- at  the  time  of  their  disappear¬ 
ance,  accounts  in  the  Philadelphia  or  New  York  papers 
of  vessels  that  were  crossing  the  ocean  and  plowing 
through  millions  of  dead  pigeons. 

Mr.  Daniel  Harrer,  Sr.,  of  Roaring  Branch,  told 
me  that  when  the  pigeons  disappeared  an  old  friend  of 
his  was  on  a  slow-sailing  vessel  coming  to  America, 
and  that  for  days  he  saw  dead  pigeons  floating  on  the 
water.  The  birds  possibly  were  migrating  in  search 


208 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


of  food,  as  their  natural  feeding  grounds  were  being 
stripped  of  food  bearing  trees,  or  were  possibly  in  a 
dense  fog  and  lost  their  direction  of  flight,  or  were 
driven  over  the  ocean  by  a  storm  and,  after  aimlessly 
circling  around,  the  weaker  finally  settled  upon  the 
water,  and  the  balance  of  the  flock,  thinking  they  had- 
discovered  ground,  alighted  upon  those  that  had  al¬ 
ready  settled,  and  hence  were  drowned.  When  pigeons 
light  upon  the  ground  in  vast  numbers  they  are  con¬ 
stantly  in  motion,  as  though  jumping  over  each  other, 
and  in  appearance  like  waves. 

Mr.  James  V.  Bennett,  a  veteran  pigeoneer,  informs 
me  that  he  remembers  distinctly  at  the  time  of  the  dis¬ 
appearance  of  the  passenger  pigeon  of  reading  ac¬ 
counts  in  different  papers  that  the  birds  had  gotten 
into  a  dense  fog  while  migrating,  lost  their  direction  of 
flight  and  strayed  out  over  the  ocean  and  alighted  in 
such  vast  numbers  on  vessels  that  the  passengers,  fear¬ 
ing  for  their  own  safety,  were  compelled  to  club  the 
birds  off  the  vessels.  The  accounts  also  stated  that  the 
dead  pigeons  were  washed  upon  the  shore  in  such  quan¬ 
tity  that  they  were  from  one  to  two  feet  deep  in  places. 

I  feel  that  Mr.  Bennett  can  give  more  facts  concern¬ 
ing  the  birds  than  any  person  with  whom  I  am  ac¬ 
quainted,  as  from  boyhood  he  has  been  familiar  with 
the  habits  of  the  birds,  and  from  repeated  conversa¬ 
tions  that  I  have  had  with  him  concerning  the  wild 
pigeon,  I  have  gathered  the  following  information 
which  is  not  generally  known  : 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


209 


How  the  Marsh  Beds  Were  Prepared  to  Attract  the 
Birds. 

The  ground  was  spaded  and  raked  over  as  in  the 
making  of  a  garden,  then  a  quantity  of  salt  was  scat¬ 
tered  over  and  whipped  into  the  earth  with  a  brush 
until  it  was  thoroughly  mixed.  The  pigeons  would  eat 
this  “muck”  with  a  relish.  This  mixture  doubtless 
aided  the  birds  to  digest  their  rich  diet,  which  consisted 
in  the  main  of  beech  nuts  and  Black  Jack  acorns.  The 
salt  was  applied  about  every  other  day  in  small  quan¬ 
tities  to  freshen  the  “muck  bed.”  By  break  of  day  the 
nets  were  set  and  the  pigeon  stool  placed  at  the  edge  of 
the  “muck  bed”  and  the  stool  pigeon  fastened  by  the 
feet  on  the  pad  at  the  end  of  the  arm  of  the  stool,  and 
attached  thereto  was  a  rope  leading  to  the  bough  house 
in  which  the  netters  were  concealed.  The  bough  house 
was  built  of  either  hemlock,  spruce  or  white  pine  of 
sufficient  size  to  admit  of  two  persons  to  move  about 
easily  and  not  be  noticed  by  the  flight  of  pigeons.  At 
times  the  flocks  were  so  large  that  they  fairly  darkened 
the  sky,  cloud-like.  In  order  to  attract  the  attention  of 
the  flock,  four  to  six  long-line  fliers  or  decoys  were  put 
out,  when  the  flock  would  suddenly  break  in  the  centre, 
funnel-like ;  then  the  netters  in  the  bough  house  would 
by  means  of  the  rope  slowly  raise  the  arm  of  the  stool 
upon  which  the  stool  or  decoy  pigeon  was  fastened, 
then  lower  it  quickly,  thus  causing  the  bird  to  spread 
its  wings  as  if  in  the  act  of  alighting  on  the  “muck 
bed.”  The  birds  would  come  streaming  down,  and 
there  would  be  seemingly  in  extent  an  acre  or  two  of 


210 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


pigeons  on  the  ground.  The  net  was  then  sprung  and 
thrown  over  the  birds  on  the  “muck  bed.”  The  pig- 
eoneers  in  the  bough  house  would  rush  out,  and  if  the 
lead  weights  on  the  guy  ropes  were  not  sufficiently 
heavy  to  hold  the  net  down  and  thus  prevent  the  pig¬ 
eons  from  escaping,  poles  were  laid  on  the  edges  of 
the  net  or  the  net  held  down  by  the  pigeoneers.  The 
birds  were  killed  by  crushing  their  heads  or  breaking 
their  necks  between  the  thumb  and  fingers.  When  this 
process  tired  the  fingers,  the  heads  of  the  birds  were 
then  crushed  between  flat  stones  held  in  each  hand. 
Mr.  Bennett  invented  and  used  long,  round-nosed  pliers 
with  which  to  break  the  neck,  it  being  more  humane 
and  effectual  and  its  use  less  tiresome  to  the  hand  than 
the  other  methods. 

In  their  nesting  places,  young  hickory  trees  fully 
fifty  feet  high  would  be  so  loaded  with  pigeons  that 
they  would  bend  over  until  a  man  could  touch  their 
tops. 

When  the  birds  started  out  in  the  morning  at  day¬ 
break  to  forage  for  food,  they  would  circle  the  roost 
until  the  flock  looked  like  one  solid  body,  then  take 
their  course  to  feed,  going  many  miles. 

The  male  bird  would  sit  on  the  nest  in  the  after¬ 
noon.  The  morning  flights  were  composed  of  the  male 
birds.  They  returned  at  noon,  and  the  females  would 
go  in  search  of  food,  but  soon  return  to  take  the  nest 
in  the  night.  This  applies  only  to  birds  that  were  nest¬ 
ing.  The  birds  that  did  not  nest  were  “mixed  birds,” 
.and  were  too  young  to  nest.  When  birds  were  nesting 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


211 


the  females  furnished  a  curd  for  the  young  which 
looked  like  sour  or  thick  milk,  and  was  commonly 
called  “pigeon  milk.”  This  they  fed  to  the  young  for 
the  first  week  or  ten  days  after  they  were  hatched. 
Then  the  parent  birds  furnished  such  food  as  they 
gathered  from  the  fields  and  woods. 

The  birds  arrived  on  their  northern  migration  about 
the  middle  of  March,  and  from  that  time  nested  every 
four  weeks  until  the  month  of  June,  which  was  their 
last  hatching.  Two  eggs  were  laid  in  each  hatching. 
Forty  or  more  nests  have  been  found  on  one  beach 
tree.  The  nests  are  composed  of  small  sticks  crossed 
and  recrossed  on  the  small  branches  of  the  trees.  One 
would  wonder  how  the  birds  managed  to  keep  the  eggs 
in  such  a  frail  and  open  nest,  as  they  could  frequently 
be  seen  through  the  sticks  that  composed  the  nest. 

During  the  night  the  female  bird  roosted  nearby  the 
nest,  waiting  for  the  coming  of  the  morning ;  then  she 
would  incubate  the  eggs  or  care  for  the  young,  and  the 
male  take  to  roaming  in  search  of  food  as  already  de¬ 
scribed. 

After  the  nesting  season  closed  in  June  the  birds 
would  scatter  about  and  wander  in  small  flocks  until 
the  latter  part  of  October,  then  collect  together  in 
larger  flocks  and  start  for  the  south  and  southwest.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  fall  or  winter  they  stayed  in 
Arkansas  or  Missouri,  then  migrated  to  the  Indian 
Territory  and  Texas  and  still  farther  down  into  the 
southern  states,  where  they  fed  on  wild  rice.  In  the 
spring  flight  birds  have  been  caught  within  four  miles 


212 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


of  Williamsport  with  wild  rice  in  their  crops  that  had 
doubtless  been  gathered  the  morning  of  the  day  when 
they  were  caught. 

Pigeoneers  kept  each  other  constantly  informed  as 
to  the  movements  of  the  birds  and  probable  nesting 
grounds.  Birds  were  shot  from  passing  flocks  and 
dissected  to  see  the  egg  development,  and  from  that 
would  determine,  if  possible,  the  nesting  time. 

I  have  a  letter  from  Mr.  S.  A.  Stephan,  general 
manager  of  the  Cincinnati  Zoological  Garden',  Cincin¬ 
nati,  Ohio,  which  he  wrote  me  at  the  time  of  the  death 
of  the  last  passenger  pigeon  which  they  had  in  cap¬ 
tivity,  in  which  he  says :  “The  last  survivor,  female, 
died  at  2  o’clock  p.  m.  on  Saturday,  August  29,  1914,  it 
being  the  last  of  a  flock  of  seventeen  that  was  captured 
in  the  year  1876.”  Sincerely  yours, 

Charles  H.  Eldon. 


Letter  from  Cincinnati  Zoo  : 

THE  CINCINNATI  ZOOLOGICAL  COMPANY 
Cincinnati/Ohio,  August  19,  1913. 
Mr.  Charles  H.  Eldon, 

331  W.  Fourth  Street, 

Williamsport,  Pa. 

Dear  Sir: 

Replying  to  your  inquiry  of  August  11th,  I  beg 
to  say  that  our  one  remaining  wild  Passenger  Pigeon 
is  still  alive  and  is  apparently  in  a  good  healthy  condi- 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


213 


tion  and  fine  plumage,  and  we  have  great  hopes  of 
keeping  it  for  a  good  many  years  to  come. 

Very  truly  yours, 

S.  A.  STEPHAN 

P.  S. — The  bird  is  one  remaining  out  of  a  flock 
of  Passenger  Pigeons  that,  were  secured  by  the  Zoo 
in  1876. 


Letter  from  James  V.  Bennett,  famous  pigeoneer: 
“Dear  Col.  Shoemaker : 

“In  the  spring  of  1863,  I  was  living  with  my  uncle 
on  his  farm  in  Blooming  Grove,  near  Ball’s  Mills,  in 
Lycoming  County.  We  would  always  get  ready  for  the 
spring  flight  of  the  wild  pigeon,  just  the  same  as  we 
would  get  ready  to  plant  our  crops,  and  just  as  sure 
as  there  was  a  good  crop  of  beach  nuts,  we  could  ex¬ 
pect  a  heavy  flight  of  pigeons  coming  or  going  north 
as  they  usually  roosted  on  the  headwaters  of  Pleasant 
Stream  on  a  branch  called  Pigeon  Roost  Run. 

In  the  spring  of  1867,  I  was  helping  my  uncle  get 
out  timber  for  a  new  bank  bam.  The  pigeons  started 
to  fly  in  heavy  flight  directly  from  the  south  and  as 
I  remember  that  stopped  the  barn  building  for  a  time. 

I  continued  following  the  wild  pigeon  from  year 
to  year  until  the  fall  of  1877,  when  on  September  15, 
I  started  for  the  Indian  Territory,  or  rather  expected 
to  find  the  birds  some  where  in  Arkansas.  I  started 
in  pursuit  of  the  birds  from  Verona,  Mo.,  in  a  covered 
wagon  with  two  horses,  going  from  one  valley  to  an- 


THE  LAST  MESSAGE 

Address  Side  of  Card  Sent  to  Mr.  Bennett,  Informing  Him  of 
Last  Flight  of  Wild  Pigeons,  1888. 


THE  LAST  MESSAGE 

Reverse  Side  of  Card  Sent  to  Mr.  Bennett,  Informing  Him  of 
Last  Flight  of  Wild  Pigeons  Before  Their  Mysterious 
Disappearance,  1888. 


214 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


other  until  I  reached  Cherokee,  near  the  line  between 
Arkansas  and  the  Indian  Territory,  there  I  heard  the 
birds  were  roosting  at  Highcove,  Indian  Territory, 
about  two  days  travel  from  Cherokee,  taking  what  was 
called  the  State  Road  going  through  vast  timber  lands 
on  which  grew  what  they  called  Black  Jack  Oak,  on 
these  oak  trees  grew  a  small  acorn  which  the  birds 
were,  feeding  on.  On  the  evening  of  my  second  day 
through  the  Territory,  I  came  to  the  pigeon  roost. 
I  could  hear  the  birds  craking  and  flying  in  such  large 
flocks  for  about  one  mile  before  I  reached  the  roost. 
The  size  of  the  roost  was  estimated  to  be  fifteen  miles 
by  forty  miles.  My  meat  supply  was  getting-low,  so 
I  decided  on  ha\ing  some  pigeon  pie.  The  moon  was 
shining  very  bright.  Taking  my  shot  gun  I  fired  two 
shots  into  the  trees  and  picked  up  forty-one  pigeons. 
There  were  nine  Indians  in  this  roost  shooting  for  the 
market,  and  in  three  nights,  killed  and  sold  3,630 
pigeons. 

I  remained  in  the  Territory  until  February,  1878, 
when  I  left  for  Pennsylvania,  to  get  ready  for  the 
spring  flight  in  March,  1878.  I  pitched  my  tent  near 
Kane,  at  a  place  called  Highland.  That  season  there 
was  carload  after  carload  shipped  from  Kane  and 
Sheffield,  to  the  northern  market.  The  spring  of 
1882  was  my  last  year  to  follow  the  wild  pigeon, 
leaving  the  forests  of  Potter  County  on  the  Couders- 
port  Pike,  May  29,  1882.  However,  in  1884,  I  re¬ 
ceived  a  letter  from  a  friend  from  Hartsgrove,  Ind., 
who  had  just  returned  from  the  Indian  Territory, 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


215 


stating  that  the  wild  pigeons  were  flying  up  the  Mis¬ 
souri  River  in  heavy  flight.  Then  I  got  a  postal  card 
that  a  few  ‘scout’  birds  were  flying  about  Sheffield, 
Pa.,  in  March,  1888.  That  was  the  last  time  I  had 
any  trace  of  the  fast  flying  Passenger  or  wild  pigeon.” 

JAMES  V.  BENNETT, 

Dec.  1,  1918.  Williamsport,  Pa. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


FLIGHT  OF  PIGEONS 

Frank  Kiess  Owns  Net  in  Which  He  Caught 
Hundreds  of  Birds 


James  V.  Bennett,  Pigeoneer 

Methods  of  Netting  Described  by  Men  Who  Actually 
Caught  and  Sold  Birds — Charles  H.  Eldon, 
Taxidermist,  Has  Interesting  Display 


FLIGHTS  of  wild  pigeons  that  almost  obscured  the 
sun  are  recalled  by  the  display  of  a  large  net,  a 
stool,  hubs,  baskets  and  other  equipment  used  by  the 
pigeoneers  in  the  days  when  the  netting  of  pigeons  was 
a  business  as  the  raising  of  squabs  today.  Many  of  the 
older  residents  of  Williamsport  recall  the  flights  of  the 
birds  and  not  a  few  followed  the  business  of  trapping 
them  back  in  the  ’70’s.  They  were  caught  frequently 
in  the  hills  four  miles  north  of  the  city,  and  in  the 
Warrensville  section.  Today  there  is  only  one  wild 
pigeon  in  existance,  and  she  is  in  captivity  in  the  Cin¬ 
cinnati  Zoological  Garden,  having  been  captured  in 
1876.  Charles  H.  Eldon  has  the  last  wild  pigeon  killed 
in  this  section.  It  was  shot  near  Linden,  October  5, 
1890,  and  shows  the  typical  plumage  of  the  species. 


216 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


217 


Frank  C.  Kiess,  a  native  of  Warrensville,  but  now 
a  resident  of  this  city,  netted  pigeons  in  his  younger 
days,  and  preserved  his  equipment,  including  a  net 
24  x  28  feet  in  size  and  made  from  flax  raised  by  him¬ 
self  and  spun  by  his  aunts,  Dorothy  and  Katherine 
Kiess.  The  net,  when  completed,  was  stained  in  butter¬ 
nut  bark  to  resemble  the  color  of  the  earth,  so  that 
it  would  not  be  observed  by  the  pigeons. 

James  V.  Bennett,  of  the  contracting  firm  of 
James  V.  Bennett  &  Co.,  followed  the  pigeons  from 
Oklahoma,  their  roost,  to  the  creek  valleys  in  this 
vicinity  where  they  nested,  and  made  a  business  of 
supplying  the  market  with  dead  and  live  birds.  In 
those  days  the  dead  pigeons  brought  from  90  cents  to 
$2.00  a  dozen.  Many  were  shipped  to  Buffalo,  and 
other  shooting  clubs  in  cities,  where  they  brought  $2.25 
a  dozen. 

In  his  business  as  pigoneer,  Mr.  Bennett  came  in 
dose  touch  with  the  methods  of  trappers.  From  the 
time  the  pigeons  started  their  spring  flight  from  roosts 
in  Texas,  Oklahoma  and  Arkansas,  they  were  the  prey 
of  netters  and  gunners  until  they  reached  their  nesting 
grounds  on  Potato  Creek  in  McKean  County,  Cherry 
Creek  in  Potter  County  and  Tionesta  and  Blue  Jay 
Creeks  in  Elk  County.  Even  in  the  nesting  places  raid¬ 
ers  sometimes  disturbed  the  birds  and  slaughtered 
them,  leaving  their  eggs  and  young  to  perish.  Mr.  Ben¬ 
nett  states  that  in  a  single  shot  on  a  roost  in  Oklahoma, 
he  brought  down  forty-one  birds,  so  thickly  were  they 
crowded  among  the  trees  on  a  roost  that  was  said  to 


218 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


extend  over  a  distance  of  fifteen  miles  wide  and  forty 
miles  long.  The  shot  was  made  near  Hocooc,  Okla¬ 
homa,  in  1882,  after  the  birds  had  ceased  their  flights 
north,  the  last  of  these  being  in  1875.  Mr.  Bennett 
stopped  netting  in  1882. 

Netting  pigeons  was  no  small  trick,  according  to 
Mr.  Bennett.  In  order  to  insure  success  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  keep  stool  pigeons  and  flyers  from  one  year  to 
another.  When  the  flights  of  the  pigeons  began,  the 
pigoneers  wrote  letters  and  postals  detailing  the  gen¬ 
eral  direction  of  the  flight.  In  the  spring,  nets  usually 
were  set  in  cornfields  with  the  corn  cut  low  in  spots. 
In  the  fall  the  nets  were  spread  in  buckwheat  fields. 
In  preparing  for  a  catch  the  pigeoneers  concealed 
themselves  in  a  bough  house,  made  from  spruce  or 
other  loose  material.  The  net  was  set  at  one  side  of  a 
section  of  prepared  earth,  salt  being  whipped  in,  the 
net  being  spread  in  narrow  folds.  One  side  was  made 
fast  to  the  earth  and  the  rope  from  the  other  was  at¬ 
tached  to  the  ends  of  two  spring  poles  that  could  be  re¬ 
leased  from  the  bough  house  some  fifty  or  sixty  feet 
away.  Near  the  net  was  the  stool  with  the  stool  pig¬ 
eon.  The  bird  was  blinded  temporarily  by  running 
silk  threads  through  the  eyelids  and  tied  so  as  to  not 
injure  the  sight.  The  stool  pigeon  would  then  sit 
quietly  and  not  flutter  about  so  as  to  frighten  away  the 
flocks  that  were  sought  by  the  trapper. 

When  a  flock  came  in  sight,  the  flyers  would  be 
sent  up  with  twine  attached;  These  birds  would  at¬ 
tract  the  attention  of  the  flock  and  cause  it  to  land 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


219 


near  the  net.  When  the  flock  appeared  to  break  the 
stool  would  be  pulled  so  that  the  stool  pigeon  would 
go  through  a  hovering  motion  as  if  it  was  about  to 
land.  Like  an  arrow,  the  birds  would  swerve  from 
their  course,  breaking  in  the  middle  and  amid  a  great 
fluttering  of  wings  would  land  on  the  bed  prepared  for 
them.  That  instant  the  rope  from  the  bough  house 
would  release  the  spring  poles  and  the  net  would  be 
thrown  over  all  the  birds  within  reach.  The  other 
birds  would  fly  away  in  fright,  while  the  men  from 
the  bough  house  would  rush  out  and  throw  their 
weight  on  the  net  or  lay  rails  on  the  edge  of  it  to 
keep  the  birds  within  from  escaping.  The  birds  were 
killed  by  pinching  their  necks  between  the  thumb  and 
fingers  of  the  pigeoneer.  This  method  proved  tire¬ 
some  in  big  catches,  so  Mr.  Bennett  invented  a  pair 
of  pinchers  which  were  less  cruel  and  more  effective. 

In  these  catches  it  was  not  unusual  to  take  as  many 
as  from  150  to  200  dozen  birds  These  were  killed 
and  dressed  for  market  or  were  smoked  and  kept  for 
home  use.  The  latest  great  flight  of  wild  pigeons  re¬ 
called  by  Mr.  Bennett,  was  up  the  Missouri  river,  in 
Mlarch,  1883,  but  after  that  date  there  appears  to  be 
no  record  of  wild  pigeons  in  great  numbers.  What 
became  of  them  is  unknown.  Some  believe  they  were 
driven  out  to  sea  in  a  storm  and  perished,  while  others 
insist  that  the  birds  still  are  in  Canada  and  may 
yet  return  to  their  native  haunts.  However,  it  is  gen¬ 
erally  assumed  among  scientists  who  have  made  care¬ 
ful  investigation  of  the  disappearance  of  the  wild  pig- 


220 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


eons  that  they  were  victims  of  disease  and  natural  and 
unnatural  enemies  until  finally  the  birds  were  ex¬ 
terminated. — Williamsport,  Pa.,  “Grit”  (Old  Home 
Week  Edition). 

Extracts  from  a  Personal  Letter  from  Mr.  Eldon 

Dear  Coe.  Shoemaker  : 

*****  The  pincers  for  killing  passenger 
pigeons  were  invented  and  used  by  James  V.  Bennett. 
The  passenger  pigeon  picture  shows  its  present  mount¬ 
ing  under  an  oval  covered  glass — the  window  reflection 
in  the  picture  could  not  be  avoided.  The  artist  can 
eliminate  it  in  the  making  of  the  cut.  The  bird  is  in  a 
sealed  case,  and  I  did  not  care  to  open  it.  Hence  the 
picture  through  the  glass.  I  thought  to  have  a  picture 
made  of  myself  and  the  framed  bird,  a  copy  of  which 
will  also  be  sent  you. 

The  stool  pigeon  basket  is  of  unusual  form — 
there  being  no  top  though  the  heads  and  backs  of  the 
pigeons  could  not  be  injured  in  their  effort  to  get  out, 
nor  could  their  backs  and  wing  coverts  be  injured 
by  abrasion  while  being  carried.  I  just  called  up  by 
phone,  Mr.  Frank  B.  Rynearson,  of  Huntersville,  Pa., 
from  whom  I  obtained  the  basket.  It  was  made  and 
used  for  several  years  by  his  father,  Mr.  Bernet 
Rynearson,  who  was  a  noted  pigeon  netter  at  the 
above  named  place,  where  the  pigeons  nested  reg¬ 
ularly.  The  basket  is  over  one  hundred  years  old. 
This  basket  I  am  keeping  for  you  until  you  return  to 
Restless  Oaks,  or  will  be  sent  direct  to  some  other 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


221 


address  as  you  may  elect.  I  overlooked  in  my  former 
letter  to  say  the  pigeon  that  forms  the  subject  of  this 
letter  was  killed  on  the  old  Fincher  Homestead.  En¬ 
closed  also,  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  received  from  the  Gen¬ 
eral  Manager  of  the  Cincinnati  Zoological  Company, 
which  will  explain  itself  later  on.  Mr.  Stephan  wrote 
rne  telling  me  of  the  death  of  the  Passenger  Pigeon 
which  occurred  on  Saturday ,  August  29,  1914,  at  two 
o'clock  P.  M.,  in  the  Zoological  Garden,  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  it  being  the  last  of  a  flock  of  seventeen  that  was 
captured  in  the  year  1876. 

During  my  search  for  the  letter  I  came  across 
a  wealth  of  information  gleaned  from  repeated  talks 
with  Mr.  Bennett  upon  his  favorite  topic — the 
Passenger  Pigeon — even  more  comprehensive  if  pos¬ 
sible,  than  the  papers  given  you,  shows  that  life 
habits  of  the  birds  which  have  been  aptly  told,  in 
their  varying  forms,  and  will  be  a  wonderful  addi¬ 
tion  for  a  revised  edition  of  the  book,  if  you  do  not 
care  to  delay  this  the  first  issue  for  their  in¬ 
sertion.  I  was  greatly  pleased  to  find  this  mem¬ 
oranda,  and  will  some  day  put  this  item  in  readable 
form  as  soon  as  the  present  business  rush  is  over.  I 
have  a  drawing  made  by  M|r.  Bennett,  showing  the 
method  of  setting  the  nets  and  method  of  springing 
the  net,  and  throwing  same  by  spring  poles  over  the 
birds,  location  of  bough  houses  and  stool  pigeons,  etc. 

I  cannot  find  the  clipping  from  Grit,  giving  an  ac 
count  of  Old  Home  Week  in  which  was  given  a  de¬ 
scription  of  my  exhibit  of  pigeon  trapping  outfit  which 


222 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


was  shown  in  front  of  my  business  place  at  that  time. 
I  have,  however,  a  type-written  copy  of  the  same, 
which  was  furnished  me  some  time  past — they  be¬ 
ing  unable  to  furnish  a  clipping.  I  will  enclose  you 
copy  of  same.  I’m  quite  convinced  the  description 
will  be  interesting  and  instructive. 

I  am  also  pleased  to  enclose  the  article  written  by 
Mr.  Bennett  and  to  which  I  referred  in  my  previous 
letter.  Mr.  Bennett  is  away  on  a  hunting  trip,  so 
Mrs.  Bennett  informed  me  yesterday — but  that  she 
would  send  me  by  her  son,  the  desired  postal.  I 
did  not  receive  them  until  last  evening,  or  I  should 
have  had  a  photo  made  of  the  one  you  desire,  March 
25,  1888,  which  will  be  attended  to  Monday  morning. 

Fraternally  yours, 

Dec.  3rd,  1918.  CHARLES  H.  ELDON 

P.  S. — As  to  the  Passenger  Pigeon  now  in  my  col¬ 
lection,  this  bird  was  shot  October  5,  1890,  by  Mr.  Jas¬ 
per  H.  Fincher,  two  miles  north  of  the  town  of  Linden, 
Pa.,  in  a  woods  through  which  the  Queneshaque  Creek 
flows.  Mr.  Fincher  and  a  company  of  friends  were 
picnicing  there,  when  he  saw  a  bird  fly  up  from  the 
ground  and  light  on  a  tree.  He  shot  the  bird  and  was 
surprised  when  informed  it  was  a  wild  pigeon — he  hav¬ 
ing  never  seen  one  before  or  since.  I  mounted  the  bird 
promptly  upon  its  receipt,  for  Mr.  De  Loss  Mahaffey, 
who  left  it  in  my  care.  A  few  years  ago,  I  purchased 
the  bird  from  Mr.  Mahaffey.  I  regard  the  bird  as  one 
of  my  choice  possessions.  C.  H.  E. 


Photograph  of  the  last 
Passenger  Pigeon-f emale- 
taken  in  year  1 9 1 1  in 
The  Cincinnati  Zoological 
Garden,  Cin.,0.  The  bird 
died  at  2o* clock  P.  M.  on 
Saturday  August  29th,  191 4, 
it  being  the  last  of  a  flock 
of  seventeen  captured  in  1876. 


LAST  PASSENGER  PIGEON 
Died  at  Cincinnati,  O.,  Zoo,  August  29,  1914. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


HOW  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON 

CAME  TO  AN  UNTIMELY  END 


By  DR.  B.  H.  WARREN, 

Former  Director,  Everhart  Museum,  Scranton.  Author  “The 
Birds  of  Pennsylvania,”  Etc. 


HE  Passenger  Pigeon,  or  wild  pigeon,  as  it  is 


A  better  known  to  older  residents,  who  in  early 
childhood  days,  saw  immense  flocks  of  the  species  in 
this  state,  is  now  extinct.  As  H.  W.  Henshaw,  chief 
of  the  biological  survey,  writes  in  the  National  Geo¬ 
graphic  Magazine,  “on  September  1,  1914,  aged  20 
years,  departed  this  life,  the  sole  surviving  Passenger 
Pigeon.  This  brief  obituary  records  the  disappearance 
from  earth,  not  only  of  the  last  survivor  of  a  notable 
American  game  bird,  but,  what  is  infinitely  sadder,  the 
passing  of  a  species.”  (The  correct  date  is  August 
29,  1914.) 

The  last  living  wild  pigeon  had  been  a  captive  for 
some  years  in  the  Cincinnati  zoological  garden.  The 
common  mourning  or  turtle  dove  is  frequently  mis¬ 
taken  for  the  wild  pigeon  by  many  persons  who  are 
not  acquainted  with  the  two  species.  There  seems  to 
be  no  doubt  whatever  in  the  minds  of  the  best  natural¬ 
ists  in  America,  that  the  Passenger  or  wild  pigeon  is 
extinct. 


223 


224  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  disappearance  of  the  species,  of  course,  pre¬ 
vents  natural  history  students  from  studying  the  wild 
pigeon  in  life,  yet  there  are  fortunately  many  stuffed 
specimens  of  the  species  in  museums  of  the  United 
States  and  Europe.  There  are,  I  find,  quite  a  num¬ 
ber  of  mounted  wild  pigeons  in  numerous  private  col¬ 
lections  and  in  this  state.  I  have  also  seen  in  the  last 
two  or  three  years  at  least,  a  dozen  stuffed  wild  pig¬ 
eons  which  are  owned  by  private  individuals  in  Penn¬ 
sylvania.  These  birds  are  used  as  mantel  or  mural 
decorations  in  rooms. 

Pigeons  in  Former  Years 

The  following  extremely  interesting  information 
concerning  the  wild  pigeons  is  gleaned  from  a  recent 
conversation  I  had  with  C.  K.  Sober,  of  Lewisburg, 
an  old-time  hunter,  and  one  of  the  best-informed  in¬ 
dividuals  in  this  state  on  the  subject  of  game  birds 
and  mammals  of  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Sober  spent  his 
seventy-third  birthday  on  November  24th,  hunting 
ruffed  grouse  on  his  famous  Paragon  Chestnut  farm, 
in  Irish  Valley,  about  six  miles  from  Shamokin. 
Mr.  Sober,  when  too  young  to  handle  a  gun,  began 
his  hunting  career  by  using  a  bow  and  arrow,  with 
which  he  killed  rabbits  and  small  birds.  ’  When 
twelve  years  old,  he  shot  his  first  wild  pigeon  with 
a  flint-lock  gun,  the  property  of  one  of  his  older 
brothers.  Mr.  S' ber  said: 

“Pigeons  would  begin  to  collect  in  buckwheat 
fields,  in  September,  or  about  the  time  buckwheat 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


225 


started  to  ripen.  At  first,  they  came  to  the  fields  in 
twos  or  threes,  and  after  a  pair  or  so  started  to  feed 
regular!}  in  a  field,  the  number  increased  daily  until 
a  flock  of  ten,  twenty  or  more  dozens  of  birds  would 
come  to  the  same  field  for  food.  As  a  rule,  they 
would  come  early  in  the  morning  to  feed.  Their 
visits  in  the  afternoon  for  provender  were  irregular, 
and  they  seemed  to  be  more  likely  to  come  to  the 
buckwheat  fields  on  afternoons  of  foggy  days-.  These 
pigeons  would  often  collect  in  flocks  on  fields  where 
wheat  had  been  sown  in  September,  and  when  the 
birds  were  numerous,  they  often  did  considerable 
injury  to  the  wheat,  and  they  freqeuntly  did  much 
damage  to  buckwheat  crops.  Wild  pigeons  in  day¬ 
light  in  the  autumn,  spent  much  time  feeding  on  acorns 
and  beechnuts  in  hardwood  forests.  The  birds  ap¬ 
peared  to  leave  about  the  last  of  October,  and  return 
in  the  early  spring,  and  collected  in  the  buckwheat 
stubble,  where  they  were  netted  by  the  hundreds  of 
thousands. 


Nested  Early 

“They  began  nesting  early  in  April.  The  nests, 
flimsy,  flat  structures,  were  made  of  small  sticks  and 
twigs.  Two  white  eggs  were  laid  and  these  were  a 
trifle  smaller  than  eggs  of  domestic  pigeons.  All  the 
nests  I  ever  saw,  were  in  beechwoods,  and  mostly  on 
beech  trees.  I  have  seen  from  six  to  twenty-five, 
and  even  more  nests  on  a  single  tree.  The  eggs  or 
young  could  often  be  seen  from  the  ground  through 


226 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


the  loosely  made  nests,  when  placed  on  low  branches. 
Nests  on  high  limbs  of  tall  trees  looked  not  unlike 
black  patches  of  moss  and  a  certain  species  of  dark- 
colored  fungus  which  often  grows  on  the  beech  and 
some  other  trees  of  the  forest.  A  row  of  nests  was 
sometimes  to  be  seen  on  a  single  limb.  Each  pair 
of  pigeons  had  a  nest.  The  old  birds,  as  well  as 
their  young,  appeared  to  live  in  harmony. 

Made  Their  Young  Hustle 

“The  young  pigeons  in  the  nests  were  so  scantily 
fed  by  the  parents,  that  they  were  mere  skeletons, 
and  as  soon  as  the  youngsters  were  able  to  fly  a 
a  short  distance,  the  old  birds  crowded  and  drove  them 
from  the  nests,  from  which  they  would  fly  to  the 
ground  in  a  heavy  and  labored  manner.  In  falling 
and  flying  to  the  earth,  many  of  the  young  were  killed. 
Those  which  reached  the  ground  uninjured,  were 
hungry,  and  they  would  pick  at  the  ends  of  bushes, 
leaves  and  almost  anything  in  sight.  They  soon 
found  beechnuts  on  the  ground,  and  then  they  had  an 
abundance  of  food.  These  young  pigeons  fed  day 
after  day,  and  extended  the  feeding  ground  over  a 
large  area  of  the  beech  woods.  The  old  pigeons  would 
not  take  beechnuts  or  other  food,  either  for  themselves 
or  young  within  a  radius  of  at  least  twenty  miles  of 
their  nesting  places.  In  July  and  August,  the  adults 
and  young  fed  on  huckleberries.  I  have  often  shot 
pigeons  with  plumage  soiled  by  juices  of  this  fruit. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


227 


Killed  With  Clubs 

“On  May  11,  12  and  13,  1880,  I  saw  near  Kane, 
McKean  County,  hundreds  of  young  wild  pigeons 
killed  with  clubs  (mornings  and  evenings  as  they 
flew  in  long  lines  in  an  open  passageway  cut  through 
brush  and  trees  for  a  pipe  line.)  These  birds  (no 
adults  were  with  them),  flew  by  thousands,  about  six 
to  twelve  feet  above  the  ground,  in  almost  a  cintinu- 
ous  line  along  the  open  passageway  through  the  forest 
and  shrubbery.  Men  stationed  themselves  along  the 
line  and  killed  the  birds,  as  they  passed,  with  clubs. 
Guns  were  not  used,  as  clubs  were  more  effective. 
Birds  slain  in  this  manner,  were  carried  off  on  wheel¬ 
barrows  and  by  wagon  loads. 

“Some  hunters  and  netters  were  expert  in  calling 
male  wild  pigeons,  which  uttered  a  shrill  note,  most 
frequently  heard  when  at  rest,  but  sometimes  made 
in  flight.  The  ‘call’  used  was  made  of  two  wooden 
blocks  and  a  piece  of  silk  ribbon  fixed  taut  as  a  violin 
string. 

Method  of  Netting 

“Experienced  netters  usually  selected  a  marshy 
spot  between  nesting  places  and  feeding  grounds,  and 
made  a  bed  in  which  a  quantity  of  salt  was  placed. 
Near  this  salt  bed  was  a  bough  house,  which  they 
built.  This  was  mostly  made  of  green  hemlock 
branches.  A  stool  pigeon  was  placed  on  the  bed  and 
the  call  was  utilized  to  lure  the  flocks  of  passing 
pigeons.  At  first,  probably  only  a  few  birds  would 


228  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


come  to  the  salt  bed.  The  netters  never  disturbed 
them.  Later  on  these  birds  would  return  with  thous¬ 
ands  of  their  species,  which  greedily  fed  upon  the 
salted  mud  or  dirt.  When  the  birds  became  accus¬ 
tomed  to  frequent  the  salt  bed,  the  nets  were  set.  I 
have  known  as  many  as  seventy-five  dozen  wild 
pigeons  to  have  been  caught  at  one  haul.  The  usual 
market  price  for  dead  pigeons  was  $1  per  dozen. 

“The  great  bulk  of  the  pigeons  that  was  sent  to 
market,  when  removed  from  the  nets,  was  taken  out 
alive  and  put  in  pens.  These  pens,  made  of  poles,  were 
about  eight  or  ten  feet  wide,  six  feet  high  and  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  feet  long.  The  pens  were  built 
over  streams  of  water,  natural  or  introduced.  The 
mud-covered  and  be-draggled  birds  would  soon  wash 
and  clean  themselves.  These  were  sold  by  thousands 
for  live-bird  shooting  contests,  and  usually  brought 
twenty-five  cents  a  pair. 

Imprisoned  in  Pens 

“The  owner  of  these  pens  shipped  the  birds  alive 
to  all  parts  of  the  country.  They  were  placed  in 
wooden  crates  six  inches  high  and  about  four  feet 
square.  These  crates,  with  especially  constructed  lad¬ 
ders,  were  carried  on  wagons  and  the  birds  in  them 
were  sent  to  the  market  or  turned  out  in  a  pigeon 
barn  not  less  than  one  hundred  feet  square. 

“The  pigeons  in  this  barn  were  fed  on  shelled 
corn,  which  was  bought  by  the  carload.  A  stream  of 
running  water  ran  through  a  barn,  at  Sheffield.  Thic 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  229 


barn  was  made  of  boards  and  had  a  shingle  roof.  Per¬ 
ches,  such  as  poles  and  tree  limbs,  were  in  the  place 
where  thousands  of  the  pigeons  were  kept  in  captivity. 

Slain  by  Thousands 

“In  1878,  I  attended  a  live-bird  shoot  at  Oil  City. 
It  lasted  three  days,  and  between  200  and  300  marks¬ 
men  participated.  Several  thousand  birds — all  wild 
pigeons — were  shot  on  this  occasion.  May  11,  12  and 
13,  1880,  I  shot  in  McKean  County,  about  fourteen 
miles  from  Kane,  forty-four  dozen  and  nine  wild 
pigeons,  all  adults.  Only  one  bird  was  killed  at  a 
shot.  These  birds  were  taken  as  they  flew  between 
nesting  place  and  feeding  ground.  Dead  pigeons, 
mostly  packed  in  barrels,  were  shipped  to  large  cities 
in  carload  lots.  These  birds  were  not  picked,  nor  were 
they  eviserated.  The  heads  and  wings,  however, 
were  usually  pulled  off. 

“I  have  netted  and  aided  to  net  thousands  of 
pigeons  during  their  flights  to  northern  nesting  places. 
Also,  when  they  were  feeding  in  wheat  and  buckwheat 
fields,  but  I  never  netted  pigeons  on  salt  beds. 

Immense  Flocks 

“In  May,  1878,  when  riding  on  the  railway  from 
Kane  to  a  point  about  twenty  miles  west  of  Kane, 
I  saw  a  constant  flight  of  wild  pigeons.  There  were 
millions,  and  all  seemed  to  be  adults.  The  continu¬ 
ous  flock  or  stream  of  birds  was  fully  twenty  miles 
wide.  This  was  in  the  morning. 


230 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


“The  stomachs  and  crops  of  wild  pigeons  which  I 
examined,  contained,  as  I  now  recall,  buckwheat, 
beechnuts,  wheat,  acorns,  seeds  of  maple,  buds  of  the 
maple,  also  huckleberries,  June  berries,  sassafras  and 
gum  berries.” — Philadelphia  North  American. 

Still  Hope  for  the  Wild  Pigeon 

In  a  letter  mailed  at  Alanson,  Michigan,  on  the 
9th  instant,  R.  F.  O’Reilly,  of  that  town,  again,  sends 
to  the  Union  and  Advertiser ,  a  statement  about  the 
wild  pigeon  that  must  be  read  with  interest  by  the 
many  who,  in  spite  of  discouraging  facts,  have  en¬ 
tertained  the  hope  that  the  bird  was  not  totally  extinct, 
and  that  some  of  them  would  come  to  view.  On  No¬ 
vember  26th  of  last  year,  this  paper  contained  a  letter 
from  Mr.  O’Reilly,  in  which  he  said  that  a  flock  of 
wild  pigeons  had  been  frequenting  his  farm  for  three 
years,  that  the  birds  numbered  about  twenty-five,  and 
that  he  was  giving  them  every  possible  protection. 
His  response  to  a  letter  written  this  summer,  asking 
if  the  birds  had  returned,  is  as  follows: 

“Dear  Sir:  Yours  received  some  time  ago  and 
have  postponed  answering  it  to  see  if  I  could  get 
something  substantial,  something  to  verify  my  claim, 
but  have  not  as  yet.  The  flock  is  here  again.  I  have 
seen  them  twice,  and  there  are  more  than  I  thought  last 
year.  I  would  put  them  at  fifty  anyway,  but  both  times 
they  were  flying  higher  than  the  trees  and  are  not 
feeding  in  this  immediate  vicinity.  I  had  hoped  to  be 
able  to  locate  their  nests  and  get  some  of  the  prize 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


231 


money  offered  for  an  undisturbed  nest,  but  I  guess 
it  is  a  long  chance  to  find  the  nests. 

“The  mourning  dove  is  here  also,  but  they  are 
always  in  pairs  or  four  at  this  time.  In  fact.  I  saw  a 
pair  not  an  hour  after  seeing  this  band. 

“I  have  talked  with  men  from  other  counties, 
who  have  seen  the  pigeons.  Our  county  school  com¬ 
missioner,  H.  S.  Babcock,  Harbor  Springs,  and  Wil¬ 
liam  O’Neil,  proprietor  of  the  Park  Hotel,  Petoskey. 
claim  to  have  seen  them  for  several  years  and  the 
latter  was  here  in  the  great  nesting  time. 

“I  write  you  because,  like  you,  I  think  they  should 
be  protected  and  brought  to  the  attention  of  some 
authorities  who  will  make  it  their  business  to  save 
them  if  possible. 

“The  game  department  of  this  state  has  taken  no 
steps  to  my  knowledge.  I  am  going  to  write  them  to¬ 
day.  I  get  so  many  letters  in  regard  to  them,  it  is 
some  job  to  answer  them  all.” 

Yours  respectfully, 

R.  F.  O’REILLY. 

There  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  doubt  the  repeated 
statements  of  Mr.  O’Reilly,  in  regard  to  the  remnant 
of  the  wild  pigeons  which  he  has  had  under  observa¬ 
tion  for  years.  He  not  only  gives  his  own  word,  but 
he  gives  the  names  of  others  who  know  of  these  pig¬ 
eons,  and  will  verify  his  statements. 

It  is  exceedingly  probable  that  a  few  of  these  birds 
may  still  visit  the  old  roosts  in  Michigan,  where  they 


232 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


flocked  in  countless  millions,  not  many  years  ago.  The 
apparently  reliable  testimony  of  Mr.  O’Reilly  and 
those  who  corroborate  him,  should  receive  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  the  naturalists  who  maintain  that  the  wild  pig¬ 
eon  is  totally  extinct.  The  matter  is  respectfully  re¬ 
ferred  to  John  Burroughs. — Rochester,  N.  Y.,  Union- 
Advertiser,  (Aug.  12,  1914.) 

Note  on  the  Passenger  Pigeon 

About  a  year  and  one  half  ago,  the  Cornell  Uni¬ 
versity  Museum  came  into  the  possession  of  a  mounted 
adult  male  Passenger  Pigeon  through  the  kindness  of 
its  collector,  Mr.  J.  L.  Howard,  of  Clyde,  N.  Y.,  a 
justice  of  that  city.  He  is  now  over  80  years  old,  and 
had  the  bird  mounted  by  a  local  taxidermist,  George 
L.  Perkins,  who  is  now  dead.  According  to  Mr. 
Howard’s  memory,  the  bird  was  taken  in  1909,  eleven 
years  after  the  last  certain  capture  (Sept.  14,  1898) 
of  a  Passenger  Pigeon  in  the  State.  On  the  bottom  of 
the  mount  is  the  legend,  “Geo.  L.  Perkins,  July  5, 
1898,” — a  date  in  close  agreement  with  Mr.  Wilbur’s 
record  (Sept.  14,  1898)  at  Canandaigua,  N.  Y.  The 
mount  might  be  an  old  mount  from  some  other  bird. 
Mr.  Howard’s  letter  follows : 

“My  account  of  the  shooting  of  the  Passenger  Pig¬ 
eon  must  be  short  as  there  was  but  little  of  it.  Upon 
the  John  Heit  farm  about  two  and  one-half  miles 
southwest  of  Clyde  and  near  the  Clyde  River  is,  and 
has  been  longer  than  I  remember,  a  small  pond  nearly 
round  and  about  three  rods  in  diameter.  .  A  low  hill 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


233 


upon  the  south  reaches  to  the  water’s  edge  forming 
the  sloping  beach.  Years  ago,  this  pond  was  in  a  large 
forest.  Now  this  was  always,  as  long  as  there  were 
any  pigeons,  a  favorite  place  for  them  to  come  and 
drink.  Six  years  ago  (1909)  I  think,  I  took  my  gun 
and  went  to  this  pond  in  hopes  I  might  get  a  Blue 
Heron,  which  I  very  much  wanted.  There  were 
tracks  of  herons,  plover  and  other  birds  in  the  mud 
around  the  shores,  so  1  sat  down  in  some  bushes  and 
pulled  them  up  around  me,  so  as  to  partly  conceal  my¬ 
self,  facing  the  east,  where  I  could  see  a  long  distance. 
Presently  I  saw,  far  to  the  east,  a  bird  coming  directly 
towards  me.  I  took  it  to  be  a  Pigeon  Hawk.  It  flew 
off  to  my  right  and  turned  in  behind  me,  and  the  next 
instant  I  heard  its  wings  beating  for  a  short  span,  and 
then  I  heard,  to  my  right  and  very  near,  the  loud  and 
distant  crow  of  a  wild  pigeon.  Well,  that  was  a  sur¬ 
prise.  I  had  not  seen  a  pigeon  in  fifteen  years  or  mbre 
and  now  I  sat  within  a  few  feet  of  one  and  he  kept  on 
crowing.  Well,  I  went  to  work  at  those  bushes,  pull¬ 
ing  them  apart  when  suddenly  I  saw  him  standing 
upon  the  top  of  a  fence  post  and  still  crowing. 

I  picked  up  the  gun  and  placed  it  to  the  shoulder 
and,  old  hunter  and  old  trapshooter  as  I  was,  I  could 
not  hold  the  gun  still,  I  trembled  so.  But  I  took  a 
trap-shooter’s  chance  and  got  the  bird.” — S.  C.  Bishop 
and  A.  H.  Wright,  Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
in  “Auk,”  April,  1917. 


234  THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Wild  Pigeons  in  Delaware  County 

Media,  Pa.,  Jan.  6. — While  passing  thru  Springfield 
township  today,  Deputy  Sheriff  William  M.  Mathues, 
master  hunter  of  this  county,  was  surprised  to  see  a 
flock  of  thirty  or  more  wild  pigeons  feeding  in  a  mea¬ 
dow.  Mathues  declares  that  he  had  not  seen  a  wild 
pigeon  in  this  county  since  1876.-  (1917) 


DANIEL  OTT  (1820-1916) 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


PIGEON  FLOCKS  IN  WISCONSIN 


Supposedly  Extinct  Wild  Variety  Hover  Over 
Different  Sections 


WITHIN  the  past  two  weeks,  two  large  flocks  of 
wild  pigeons  have  been  seen  in  Wisconsin,  ac¬ 
cording  to  creditable  reports.  Ten  days  ago,  people 
living  near  Dexterville,  Wood  County,  reported  the 
presence  of  a  flock  of  about  fifty.  Half  a  dozen  men 
saw  them  and  declare  they  cannot  be  mistaken — that 
the  birds  were  wild  pigeons.  A  few  days  later  another 
flock,  even  larger  than  that  seen  at  Dexterville,  was 
discovered  near  New  Lisbon.  New  Lisbon  is  in  the 
heart  of  the  old  nesting  grounds,  where  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago  millions  of  the  birds  spent  each  summer,  fed 
on  acorns  in  the  oak  groves,  hatched  their  young,  and 
in  the  fall  began  their  long  flight  into  the  south. 

Last  One  Was  in  Captivity 

The  last  pigeon  of  the  Passenger  variety  known 
to  be  in  the  United  States,  was  in  captivity  in  Phila¬ 
delphia  some  years  ago.  Its  mate  had  died,  and  $500 
was  offered  for  a  female  with  which  to  breed  it,  but 
the  reward  was  never  claimed.  At  the  same  time  an 
ornithological  society  in  the  east,  offered  $1,000  for  a 


235 


236 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


nest  of  the  Passenger  Pigeon  and  a  pair  of  the  birds. 
This  offer  was  never  taken  up. 


Once  Darkened  Skies 


— Up  to  1888,  wild  pigeons  were  the  most  numerous 
in  the  United  States  of  any  bird.  In  one  year,  1887, 
more  than  5,000,000  were  trapped  and  shipped  to  Chi¬ 
cago  alone.  The  nesting  grounds  covered  the  whole 
of  the  northern  part  of  southern  peninsula  of  Michi¬ 
gan,  southwestern  Wisconsin  and  parts  of  southern 
Minnesota,  adjacent  to  the  Mississippi  River.  It  was 
estimated  at  that  time  that  from  500,000  to  1,000,000 
pigeons  were  in  each  of  the  numerous  nesting  colonies. 
The  birds  were  trapped  in  huge  nets  that  frequently 
caught  500  at  a  throw.  They  were  hunted  and  killed 
by  hundreds  as  they  flew  at  sunrise  from  the  nesting 
grounds  to  the  feeding  places.  In  southwestern  Wis¬ 
consin,  so  plentiful  were  they,  that  they  were  killed 
by  farmers  with  clubs  and  pitchforks.  In  the  fall  of 
1888,  there  was  the  usual  migration.  And  they  never 
came  back.  Not  one  was  seen,  so  far  as  known,  since 
that  flight  to  the  south  in  1888.  The  complete  dis¬ 
appearance  of  the  birds  was  a  mystery.  It  was 
credited  to  the  ravages  of  hunters,  to  the  trap  of  the 
market  hunter,  to  a  terrific  windstorm  that  blew  great 
flocks  to  sea,  where  they  perished,  and  by  some  scien¬ 
tists  it  was  believed  they  had  changed  the  migration 
tour  to  the  southern  zones  far  toward  the  Antarctic. 


(1916.) 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


237 


Two  Wild  Pigeons  Seen 

The  first  wild  pigeons  seen  in  this  vicinity  for 
years,  were  seen  two  weeks  ago  by  John  Fry,  while 
working  at  his  lime  kiln  about  two  miles  from  town. 

John  says,  they  came  flying  up  the  little  valley, 
and  perched  within  gun  shot  of  him.  He  did  not 
know  the  law  in  regard  to  these  birds,  and  decided 
not  to  bother  them.  It  is  rarely  that  you  see  wild 
pigeons  in  the  United  States,  and  as  there  is  a  nice 
premium  on  them,  if  landed,  John  would  have  made 
quite  a  sum  of  money. — McVeytown,  Mifflin  County, 
Democrat,  October  29,  1914. 

Statement  of  John  H.  Chatham,  Veteran  Pigeon 
Hunter. 

Mr.  John  H.  Chatham,  of  Clinton  County,  says: 
“Some  time  ago  you  asked  me  to  give  you  my  ex¬ 
periences  in  pigeon  catching,  netting,  number  of 
eggs  laid,  and  a  special  single  nest  that  came  under  my 
observation.  My  first  experience  of  netting  pigeons,  was 
in  1862,  shortly  before  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks  in 
front  of  Richmond,  was  fought.  I  date  it  from  that 
time  by  the  constant  strain  on  my  mind  of  my  only 
brother,  Jas.  P.,  whom  I  knew  would  be  in  the  fight  as 
soon  as  the  battle  was  started. 

“First,  we  built  the  bough  house  in  a  field,  then 
went  to  the  woods  and  cut  two  spring  poles,  one  we 
planted  in  the  bough  house,  and  the  other  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  from  it,  out  in  the  field.  Then 


238 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


we  slung  our  two  lines  of  rope  from  one  to  the  other. 
Our  next  move  was  to  attach  a  net  to  each  rope,  then 
the  opposite  side  of  the  nets  was  carried  back  full 
width  and  anchored  to  the  ground  by  stakes,  cut  from 
small  saplings,  with  one  limb  left  on  and  cut  back  to 
within  three  or  four  inches  of  the  stake,  and  cut  off 
about  two  inches  above  the  hook,  which  it  showed 
when  finished,  three  small  stakes  were  driven  into 
the  ground,  so  as  to  have  the  hook  catch  the  rope,  and 
were  driven  in  to  the  head,  one  about  every  three  or 
four  feet  apart.  Then  two  stakes  made  of  inch  or 
inch  and  a  half  slats  about  three  inches  wide, 
with  an  auger  hole  bored  about  one-half  inch  into  it 
near  the  top.  These  were  driven  in  a  line  with  the 
smaller  stakes,  and  driven  so  that  the  sink  hole  in  the 
stake  was  left  about  two  inches  above  the  surface  of 
the  ground. 

“Then  two  throw  sticks  were  introduced — these 
consisted  generally  of  a  part  of  an  old  broom  handle, 
and  were  cut  about  two  and  one-half  feet  in  length. 
The  end  to  receive  the  rope  was  knicked  in  the  end 
to  prevent  the  rope  from  slipping.  Then  the  net  was 
carried  back  with  the  line  and  the  smooth  ends  of  the 
sticks  placed  in  the  concaved  receptacle  for  it,  and  the 
forked  end  against  the  rope.  It  was  then  pressed 
down  to  an  angle  which  held  it  in  place.  If  it  failed 
to  do  it,  a  few  small  stones  were  laid  on  it  to  hold  it 
down,  then  the  bag  or  slack  of  the  net  was  folded  up 
and  piled  close  to  the  line.  A  few  weeds  were  gen¬ 
erally  thrown  on  it  to  hide  it  from  the  pigeons. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


239 


“Our  next  operation  was  to  fix  up  for  the  stool 
pigeon.  A  mortised  stake  about  three  feet  long, 
have  a  pole  about  five  feet  long  with  a  round  stool 
nailed  to  one  end  and  flattened,  so  as  to  work  easily 
on  a  pin,  which  went  through  the  stake  at  the  slot, 
and  through  the  pin,  about  two-thirds  of  the  distance 
from  the  end  next  to  the  foot.  A  strong  cord  was 
tied  around  it,  and  strung  through  a  small  auger  hole 
above  the  slot,  the  other  end  was  then  taken  and  car¬ 
ried  to  the  bough  house,  where  the  man  inside  oper¬ 
ated  it.  The  stool  pigeon  was  then  taken  and  blinded 
by  taking  a  silk  thread  and  a  needle  to  puncture  the 
lower  eye  lid,  and  install  the  thread.  After  getting  the 
thread  through  both  lower  lids,  it  was  taken  over  the 
top  of  the  pigeon’s  head  and  tied  and  hidden  away  in 
the  feathers  of  the  head — then  the  boots  were  put  on 
his  feet  and  carried  out  to  the  stool.  The  boots  con¬ 
sisted  of  a  leather  strap,  just  wide  enough  to  cut  a 
slit  in  it,  and  put  the  other  end  through  it,  then 
slip  the  pigeon’s  feet  into  the  loop,  draw  it  tight,  and 
fasten  it  to  the  stool — so  that  the  pigeon  remained  in  a 
sitting  position.  The  stool  consisted  of  a  round 
board,  about  four  inches  wide  and  covered  with  cloth 
and  padded  underneath,  to  protect  the  pigeon  when 
being  in  use.  Two  staples  were  driven  in  the  stool  to 
fasten  the  boots  to. 

“Now  we  go  back  to  the  bough  house,  and  complete 
the  arrangements  by  taking  two  more  pigeons,  blind¬ 
ing  them  as  we  did  the  stool ;  they  are  not  booted. 
A  light  line  is  tied  to  one  leg  of  each  pigeon,  and  we 


240 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


go  into  the  bough  house — eagerly  scaning  the  horizon 
for  the  coming  pigeons.  Presently,  a  scattered  flock 
of  some  two  or  three  hundred  appear.  We  both  sally 
out,  and  when  we  think  near  enough,  toss  our  flyers 
into  the  air.  They  go  up  the  length  of  their  lines, 
fifty  or  sixty  feet,  and  find  they  are  anchored,  and  re¬ 
turn  to  the  ground,  wherever  their  blinded  lot  may 
light  them.  Then  we  rush  in  and  “Play  the  Stool” — 
pulling  on  the  cord  and  lifting  it  from  the  ground 
where  it  rests  on  a  small  pod  of  grass. 

“We  lift  it  about  three  feet  and  let  it  drop  instantly, 
in  this  operation,  the  stool  flutters  on  its  way  down¬ 
ward,  imitating  pigeons  feeding  on  the  ground,  when 
other  flocks  are  passing.  Soon  we  see  the  flock  begin¬ 
ning  to  sail,  they  whirl,  sail  over  the  bed,  turn  and  sail 
for  lighting.  We  never  wait  a  second.  As  soon  as  we 
think  we  have  a  fair  amount  of  them  lighting  and 
about  to  light,  we  surge  on  the  spring  pole  and  spring 
the  nets,  rush  out  and  hold  down  the  sides,  to  keep 
them  in,  for  with  their  united  effort,  they  carry  the 
net  off  the  ground,  and  the  ones  near  the  sides  escape. 
Here  I  stop,  think  and  ask  myself,  “Shall  I  finish  the 
picture?”  To  stop,  would  not  be  giving  the  reader 
a  full  account  of  “Pigeon  Catching.”  To  finish,  brings 
the  animal  part  of  our  nature  to  the  surface,  at  which 
I  now  shudder. 

The  trappers  now  went  in  on  top  of  the  nets, 
walked  over  them,  and  stooping  down,  placed  their 
thumb  on  the  top  of  the  pigeon’s  head,  their  finger 
under  his  bill,  and  pressed  the  skull  down  till  it 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


241 


crushed,  and  the  bird’s  life  went  out.  After  all  the 
birds  had  been  treated,  the  nets  were  reset,  the  dead 
pigeons  carried  into  the  bough  house,  in  bags,  and  an¬ 
other  “lookout,”  kept. 

“I  think  I  gave  you  an  outline  of  ‘Pigeon  Nesting,’ 
and  will  only  give  you  a  general  view  of  the  subject. 
First,  they  sent  out  an  expedition  of  some  three  or 
four  hundred  pigeons  in  the  very  early  spring,  as  soon 
as  the  hillsides  were  bare.  This  expedition  deter¬ 
mined  the  food  question,  and  returned  to  the  flock — 
as  the  swarming  bee  knows  its  tree  before  leaving  the 
hive,  so  did  the  pigeon  know  its  nesting  place  before 
starting  from  its  winter  quarters.  The  nesting  was 
built  in  compact  form,  with  a  certain  length  and  width. 
So  closely  did  they  comply  with  this  method,  that  trees 
on  the  sides  of  the  nesting  often  would  have  from 
twenty-five  to  fifty  nests  on  the  inside  and  not  a 
single  nest  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  tree,  but  a  few 
scattered  birds  would  nest  alone,  or  in  groups,  miles 
from  the  general  nesting.  They  built  a  poorly  con- 
stucted  nest,  of  just  enough  sticks  to  hold  the  eggs. 
And  in  most  nests,  visitors  to  the  nesting  could  easily 
see  the  eggs  shining  through  from  the  ground.  They 
laid  two  eggs,  to  the  pair,  though  many,  very  many 
nests  had  but  one  egg  in,  and  as  many  more  had  none 
at  all. 

“A  pair  of  pigeons  would  build  a  nest  in  a  day  or 
two,  at  most.  Sometimes  the  weather  was  against 
them,  and  an  egg  had  to  be  dropped  before  a  receptacle 
for  it  was  ready.  Others  were  trapped  or  shot  before 


242 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


laying,  and  many  that  did  lay  their  two  eggs  in  the 
nest,  were  knocked  out  by  the  intrusion  of  other  birds 
weighing  down  the  limbs  on  which  the  nests  were 
built.  Wind  storms  did  a  considerable  part.  The  nests 
were  generally  about  twelve  feet  above  the  ground, 
and  from  that  up  to  about  twenty-five  feet.  They 
never  went  up  into  the  high  tree  tops  to  nest,  probably 
on  account  of  wind.  During  the  nesting  period  they 
never  fed  nearer  than  about  ten  miles  from  the  nesting 
— this  feed  was  kept  in  reserve  for  the  squabs. 

“When  the  period  of  incubation  began,  the  great¬ 
est  flight  from  the  nesting  was  about  6  o’clock  or  just 
when  light  enough  for  them  to  see,  then  the  mother 
hen  pigeons  that  had  been  on  the  eggs  all  night,  wanted 
out  for  their  breakfast.  This  was  the  greatest  flight 
of  the  whole  day,  as  they  returned  in  scattered  flocks ; 
other  scattered  flocks  went  out  that  had  been  on  duty. 

Now,  for  my  experience  on  the  single  nest:  “A 
playmate  of  mine,  W.  W.  Smith,  said  to  me  one  day,  T 
know  a  pigeon’s  nest.’  I  asked  him  to  take  me  to  it, 
and  he  agreed.  We  started  out  the  'Gap,’  and  about 
on  the  line  between  your  domain  and  the  City  Water 
Work.  We  came  to  it  on  a  little  oak  sapling  about  eight 
feet  from  the  ground,  there  were  two  young  pigeons 
in  it,  which  later  on,  his  older  brother  took  from  the 
nest  and  took  them  home  to  raise  and  train  for  stool 
pigeons.  I  saw  them  in  his  father’s  home,  afterwards, 
and  they  were  taken  every  day,  when  fed,  placed  on 
the  trapper’s  hand  with  his  thumb  over  the  toes  and 
balanced  upward  and  downward,  to  make  them  flutter, 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


243 


and  learn  to  gather  up  their  wings  without  drooping 
them. 

“In  conclusion,  I  want  to  narrate  a  little  incident 
that  happened  this  same  old  pigeon  trapper  that  I  have 
just  described. 

“He  and  his  Brother  M.,  had  gotten  ready  to  fish 
for  pigeons,  and  from  the  condition  of  the  weather, 
the  pigeons  were  daily  expected  to  appear.  So  with 
set  nets,  pigeon  on  the  stool,  and  flyers  in  the  bough 
house,  they  smoked  their  pipes,  and  waited  for  some¬ 
thing  to  come.  Something  did  come.  About  2  o’clock 
in  the  afternoon,  a  pigeon  hawk  looped  down  on  the 
lone  stool  pigeon  sitting  on  the  stool — struck  it,  but 
on  account  of  its  being  tied  down,  did  not  take  it  with 
him.  He  circled,  came  back  and  alighted  on  it,  and 
was  about  to  make  his  late  dinner  on  the  stool,  when 
the  old  man  sprang  the  nets  on  him,  and  crawled  out 
and  captured  him  alive.  Of  course,  the  atmosphere 
was  blue  for  a  while,  then  the  brothers  held  a  council 
of  war  on  the  hawk,  and  agreed  to  pick  him  all  but 
the  wing  and  tail  feathers,  and  let  him  go.  He  went, 
but,  divested  of  so  much  of  his  flying  apparatus — 
‘looped  the  loop,’  made  the  ‘maple  leaf  whirl’  and  all 
other  difficult  feats  of  flight.” 

Mr.  Chatham,  under  date  of  Nov.  13,  1918,  writes  as 
follows : 

“Yours  at  hand  and  in  reply  to  the  salt  beds  for 
catching  pigeons,  would  state :  They  differed  but  little 
from  the  field  methods.  A  spot  was  selected  in  the 


244 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


timber  or  woods  where  there  was  an  open  space  or  few 
trees.  Then  the  leaves  were  raked  off  and  the  .bare 
ground  exposed — generally  a  damp  spot  was  se¬ 
lected.  Then  this  space  was  sprinkled  heavily  with 
salt,  and  after  being  treated  with  it,  a  stamper  was 
used  to  stamp  it  into  the  ground.  Then  the  bough 
house  was  built,  the  same  as  for  field  catching.  A 
spring  pole,  stiff  enough  to  spring  two  nets,  was  in¬ 
stalled  out  in  the  woods,  beyond  the  nets,  about  fifty 
feet  distant.  Another  was  installed  inside  the  bough 
house,  then  a  double  line  of  rope  was  strung  from  one 
pole  to  the  other;  these  were  the  ‘throw’  ropes  and  to 
each  of  them,  the  front  part  of  the  nets  were  fastened 
and  hauled  back  to  the  stakes  where  the  back  part  of 
the  nets  was  fastened  to  the  ground,  and  held  there 
by  means  of  two  sticks,  with  a  notch  in  the  ends  of 
them,  to  receive  the  ropes.  The  front  side  of  the  nets 
were  then  carried  back  out  of  line  to  the  back  side, 
when  it  was  folded  up  and  held  by  the  notched  sticks 
which  were  supported  by  a  stake  at  the  opposite  end 
of  the  set  stick,  or  the  stick  which  was  not  notched  as 
stated  above,  was  high  enough  at  the  end  of  resistance, 
from  the  ground,  to  keep  the  end  supporting  the  net 
lying  on  the  ground  with  the  rope.  Now  when  all  this 
was  in  readiness,  the  ‘catcher’  went  home,  because,  in 
this  method,  no  stool  pigeon  or  flyers  were  required. 

“In  two  or  three  days,  the  pigeons  had  found  the 
salt  and  began  to  frequent  the  place.  When  they  got 


HON.  COLEMAN  K.  SOBER 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


245 


busy,  the  catcher  knew  it.  He  got  up  before  day¬ 
light,  and  went  to  the  bough  house  and  waited  *for  the 
pigeons  to  come.  About  6  o’clock,  or  about  daylight, 
the  largest  flight  from  the  nesting  took  place.  That  is, 
the  pigeons  that  had  been  on  the  nests  all  night  at  that 
time  were  relieved  by  their  mates.  They  sought  the 
salt  bed  and  took  it  the  same  way  they  gathered  their 
food  in  the  woods  by  what  seemed  to  be  a  rolling 
process.  That  is,  they  did  not  alight,  but  kept  on  the 
wing  and  rested  on  their  beaks,  the  front  line  being 
supported  by  the  rear,  and  all  the  time  new  recruits 
from  the  rear  and  the  flock  entering  the  front,  so  that 
nothing  was  visible  but  tails,  all  sticking  up  in  the 
air.  And  when  the  bed  was  as  full  as  it  could  or 
likely  would  be,  the  man  in  the  bough  house  gave 
the  spring  pole  in  front  of  him  one  mighty  surge 
backwards,  releasing  the  nets,  which  sprung  toward 
each  other,  each  net  getting  the  pigeons  near  the  cen¬ 
ter  that  would  have  escaped  by  their  alertness.  The 
wild  pigeons,  as  may  be  inferred,  were  inordinately 
fond  of  salt.  The  field  catching  was  done  in  the  same 
way,  only  that  a  stool  pigeon  and  flyers  were  used  to 
draw  them  from  the  sky  in  their  flight.  The  word 
‘stool  pigeon’  has  become  a  part  of  the  English  lan¬ 
guage,  though  it  is  safe  to  say  that  not  one  person  in  a 
thousand  who  uses  it  will  associate  it  with  the  trapper’s 
method  of  capturing  the  Passenger  Pigeons  of  the 
olden  days.” 


246 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


Note  on  C.  H.  Shearer’s  Remarkable  Painting,  “The 
Flight  of  the  Wild  Pigeons,  Appearing 
in  This  Volume. 

This  fine  work  of  art  was  painted  during  the  winter 
of  1910-1911,  by  the  venerable  artist,  Christopher  H. 
Shearer,  of  Reading,  Berks  County,  who  was  born  in 
1846.  Mr.  Shearer  ranks  with  Pennsylvania’s  leading 
artists,  his  most  famous  .canvasses  being  “The 
Schwartzbach”  and  “Maiden  Creek,”  which  were  much 
admired  at  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia 
in  1876;  “The  Drachenfels”  and  “The  Forest  of  Mont¬ 
morency.”  Mr.  Shearer  studied  under  the  immortal 
Dan  Devlan,  at  Reading,  and  later  in  Paris  and  in  Ger¬ 
many.  He  is  equally  well  known  as  an  etcher.  In  the 
scientific  world  he  holds  a  prominent  place,  being  re¬ 
garded  as  one  of  the  leading  entomologists  of  the 
United  States.  He  is  an  expert  ornithologist,  and  in 
his  youth  devoted  much  time  to  gunning  and  netting  for 
wild  pigeons.  He  is,  therefore,  well  fitted  to  be  the 
creator  of  the  only  painting  in  existence  of  the  vast 
number  of  birds  in  flight.  The  picture  shows  a  scene  in 
Berks  County.  The  Schuylkill  River  is  winding  its 
way  through  the  middle  distance ;  in  the  background 
appears  the  long  level  wall  of  the  Blue  Mountains ;  the 
foreground  is  probably  the  rocky  height  of  Scull’s  Hill. 
For  several  years  this  painting  hung  in  the  executive 
office  of  Dr.  W.  T.  Hornaday,  Director  of  the  New 
York  Zoological  Gardens  at  the  Bronx,  having  been 
loaned  to  the  great  conservator  of  wild  life  by  Colonel 
Shoemaker,  at  whose  wish  the  picture  was  painted  by 
Reading’s  “Good  Grey  Artist.” 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 


THE  DOVE  NOT  A  PEACE  BIRD 


DOVES,  according  to  popular  tradition,  are  the  last 
things  in  the  world  to  connect  with  war.  Doves 
and  pigeons  are,  or  were,  pacifists  of  the  most  virulent 
type.  Another  cherished  yarn  has  to  go  by  the  wall, 
(for  an  authority  says  that  “five  minutes  in  a  pigeon- 
jcote  *  *  *  will  result  in  a  lifetime  of  wondering 

why  the  idealized  bird  was  chosen  as  an  emblem  of 
peace,  for  this  stout-hearted  little  bird,  once  called  the 
“dove  of  peace,”  is  now  known  and  cherished  as  “the 
war-pigeon.” 

There  “being  nothing  new  under  the  sun,”  one  is 
not  surprised  to  find  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  and 
Persians  used  pigeons,  just  as  today,  as  messengers  in 
war-time.  Then  from  the  Orient  to  Holland  and  Bel¬ 
gium  and  Merrie  England  came  the  birds,  the  ances¬ 
tors  of  the  pigeons  that  have  played  so  important  a 
part  in  driving  the  Huns  to  their  lairs. 

It  brings  the  subject  close  home  to  us  when  we  re¬ 
member  that  in  the  Pigeon  Division  of  the  Signal 
Corps  Louis  Wahl  and  William  Smead,  of  the  New 
York  “Zoo,”  are  in  charge  and  that  Corp.  Donald 
Carter,  once  in  the  Gardens,  is  in  active  service  in 
France,  among  “the  doves.” 

Mr.  Lee  S.  Crandall,  in  The  Zoological  Society  Bul¬ 
letin  (New  York),  has  interesting  things  to  say  about 


247 


248 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


the  birds.  After  speaking  of  Smerles,  “Owls,”  Dra¬ 
goons,  Horsemen,  Skinnums,  Cumulets,  etc.,  he  pro¬ 
ceeds  : 

From  this  seeming  chaos,  after  many  vicissitudes, 
the  racing  homer,  unequaled  in  speed,  endurance  and 
intelligence,  finally  was  evolved.  These  three  charac¬ 
ters  have  remained  the  great  objectives  of  the  breeder, 
and  color,  markings,  and  other  points  commonly  sought 
among  domestic  pigeons  have  been  ignored.  Many 
derivatives,  bred  for  exhibition  points  only,  have  risen 
to  popularity,  but  the  racer,  not  always  uniform  in  type 
and  color,  though  never  failing  in  courage  and  love  of 
home,  still  remains  the  pigeon  of  pigeons. 

Having  proved  its  value  as  a  flier  in  Belgium,  the 
newly  evolved  breed  was  quickly  imported  into  Eng¬ 
land,  and  later  was  brought  to  America.  The  sport  of 
pigeon-racing  soon  became  popularized,  and  its  devo¬ 
tees  now  number  thousands.  In  America  hundreds  of 
races  are  flown  yearly  under  the  auspices  of  local  clubs 
and  the  larger  national  organizations  with  which  they 
are  affiliated.  With  the  overrunning  of  Belgium  by 
the  German  hordes  of  pickers  and  stealers,  the  great 
majority  of  the  famous  studs  of  racing  pigeons  were 
seized  and  sent  to  Germany.  However,  the  blood  of 
these  great  strains  is  widely  spread  and  strongly  cher¬ 
ished  in  England  and  in  America,  so  that  they  will  not 
become  lost  to  civilization. 

Through  a  confusion  of  names,  which  has  become 
widespread,  the  homing  pigeon  is  almost  invariably  re¬ 
ferred  to  in  news  reports  as  the  “carrier.”  He  is  a 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


249 


carrier  so  far  as  service  performed  is  concerned,  but, 
unfortunately,  that  name  was  long  ago  pre-empted  by 
an  entirely  different  bird,  closely  related  to  the  Dra¬ 
goon  and  Horseman,  and  known  as  the  English  Carrier. 
This  pigeon,  while  perhaps  originally  used  for  flying, 
now  is  useless  for  that  purpose,  and  is  kept  for  exhibi¬ 
tion  only.  It  is  a  large  bird,  with  extremely  long  neck 
and  legs,  and  carries  a  huge  mass  of  flesh  about  the  eyes 
and  on  the  beak.  This  misuse  of  names  has  caused 
much  of  the  credit  due  the  true  homer  to  be  given  a 
pigeon  which  would  not  home  from  a  distance  of  a 
mile. 

Many  misunderstandings  have  arisen  as  to  the 
homing  abilities  of  the  war-pigeon.  Many  persons  ap¬ 
pear  to  believe  that  it  is  merely  necessary  to  whisper  a 
few  directions  in  the  bird’s  ear,  toss  it  into  the  air,  and 
watch  it  strike  out  for  the  destination  indicated.  Other 
fancies,  still  wider  of  the  truth,  are  numerous.  There 
is  nothing  supernatural  about  the  homer.  It  simply 
has  a  strongly  developed  love  of  home,  a  wonderful 
sense  of  direction,  and  the  strength  and  courage  to  re¬ 
turn  to  its  loft  when  released  at  a  distance. 

Sense  of  direction  is  strongly  developed  in  most 
birds.  We  have  only  to  consider  the  marvelous  migra¬ 
tion  flights  of  many  species  to  realize  that  this  is  true. 
In  domestic  pigeons  this  sense,  doubtless  native  to  the 
wild  rock-dove,  from  which  they  are  descended,  has 
degenerated  through  countless  generations  of  life  hi 
captivity.  Only  in  the  homer  has  it  been  retained  and 


250 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


magnified  by  long-continued  breeding  and  selection  for 
this  point  alone. 

All  sorts  of  theories  have  been  advanced  as  to  how  a 
homer  finds  its  way,  extraordinary  sight,  electrical  in¬ 
fluences,  and  so  on,  and  so  on.  It  would  seem,  however, 
that  it  is  simply  that  mysterious  sense  direction,  com¬ 
mon  to  all  birds,  strengthened  and  developed  by  “the 
intensive  training  to  which  the  young  homer  is  sub¬ 
jected. ”  One  important  part  of  this  is,  that,  from  the 
very  first,  the  bird  learns  well  its  home  surroundings. 
To  continue : 

When  free  flying  is  begun,  400  miles  is  the  greatest 
distance  birds  of  the  year  usually  are  asked  to  accom¬ 
plish,  but  exceptional  youngsters  occasionally  have 
done  600.  Five  hundred  miles  is  the  most  popular 
long-distance  race  for  old  birds,  but  contests  up  to 
1,000  miles  are  flown  yearly.  Eight  hundred  miles 
were  accomplished  in  one  day  by  a  famous  bird,  but 
distances  over  500  miles  usually  require  more  than  a 
single  day. 

The  speed  at  which  homing  pigeons  fly  is  one  of  the 
first  questions  that  comes  to  the  mind  of  the  inquiring 
layman.  This  varies  greatly  with  the  distance,  the 
shorter  distances  naturally  being  flown  in  much  faster 
time.  Flights  of  100  miles  with  a  favoring  wind,  often 
are  made  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a  minute,  or  even  better. 
Recent  tests  under  the  supervision  of  the  Signal  Corps 
showed  that  field  messages  sent  by  means  of  homing 
pigeons  were  delivered  in  much  shorter  time  than  by 
automobile  or  motorcycle. 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


251 


The  longest  official  distance  flown  by  a  homing  pig¬ 
eon  was  a  flight  from  Denver,  Colorado,  to  Springfield, 
Mass.,  1,689  miles.  A  little  more  than  twenty-three 
days  were  required  for  this  feat,  the  bird  flying  only 
by  day,  gleaning  its  food  from  fields  and  poultry  yards 
as  it  came. 

The  fastest  time  for  1,000  miles  is  one  day  and 
eleven  hours,  a  truly  remarkable  performance.  This 
bird,  rejoicing  in  the  name  of  “Bullet,”  still  lives  in 
Fort  Wayne,  Indiana.  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  know  that 
both  these  world’s  champions  were  produced  in  Amer¬ 
ica,  giving  assurance  that  the  heritage  of  the  now 
scattered  lofts  of  Belgium  has  not  been  neglected  in 
this  country.  Grandchildren  of  both  these  famous 
birds  are  included  in  the  flock  recently  installed  in 
the  New  York  Zoological  Park.  Others  of  almost 
equally  illustrious  descent  complete  the  new  exhibit, 
which  is  proving  of  great  interest  to  our  visitors. — 
Literary  Digest. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


STRAY  PASSENGER  PIGEONS. 

Reported  by  a  Rochester  Observer  Familiar  With 
the  Birds. 

From  New  York  Sun,  January,  1919. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Sun : 

Sir  : — I  have  seen  Passenger  Pigeons  more  or  less 
frequently  for  the  last  fifteen  years  in  the  vicinity  of 
Rochester.  I  am  familiar  with  the  Passenger  Pigeon; 
in  the  town  where  as  a  boy  I  used  to  spend  my  sum¬ 
mers,  Winona,  Minn-,  there  was  a  shooting  club  that 
used  to  shoot  pigeons  from  traps  and  the  pigeons  use'i 
were  wild  pigeons. 

The  shooting  stand  was  in  front  of  a  small  grand 
stand  on  the  local  race  track,  and  the  entire  space 
underneath  the  stand  was  divided  into  two  places  by 
laths  and  was  filled  with  wild  pigeons,  which  were 
trapped.  We  boys  with  our  guns  used  to  post  our¬ 
selves  around  the  outskirts  of  the  race  track,  and  any 
pigeon  that  escaped  the  trap-shooters  was  pretty  sure 
to  get  his. 

I  shot  them  as  a  boy  as  they  were  roosting  on  tele¬ 
graph  wires  in  the  street  that  ran  by  my  uncle’s  resi¬ 
dence  and  had  many  of  them  as  pets  and  tried  to  raise 
them  and  breed  them.  Thus  I  am  very  familiar  with 
the  birds.  So  is  my  wife. 

This  summer  I  saw  four,  one  flying,  one  perched 
sigly  on  a  telegraph  wire — a  cock — and  in  September 
I  saw  two  perched  on  a  telegraph  wire  in  the  vicinity 


252 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


253 


of  my  home  in  the  country.  These  two  birds  remained 
there  some  time;  they  were  about  300  feet  away,  and 
we  examined  them  carefully  through  our  glasses  and 
they  were  Passenger  Pigeons. 

I  have  seen  them,  perhaps  one  or  two  a  season,  the 
past  twenty  years  in  the  Genesee  Valley.  I  don’t  think 
there  is  any  possibility  of  a  mistake.  They  were  very 
common  when  I  was  a  boy  in  Minnesota  and  my  peo¬ 
ple  used  to  put  down  every  season  two  or  three  big 
crocks  of  them  for  use  in  the  winter  time. 

George  J.  French. 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  January  19th. 


POSTSCRIPT. 

39  Mice  Street,  Smethport,  Pa.,  Jan.  22,  1919. 
Coeonee  Henry  W.  Shoemaker, 

Washington,  D.  C. : 

Dear  Coeonee — Knowing  you  to  be  a  man  who 
likes  to  keep  track  of  natural  history  and  a  man  who 
is  trying  to  keep  a  tab  on  the  birds  and  animals  that 
have  become  extinct  in  our  country,  we  thought  the 
following  might  interest  you : 

In  the  fore  part  of  September,  1918,  as  we  were 
going  to  our  war  garden,  which  is  in  the  town  of 
Concord,  Mass.,  we  saw  a  flock  of  about  200  beautiful 
Passenger  Pigeons.  There  is  not  a  possible  chance 
for  us  to  be  mistaken  about  these  birds,  for  the  sky 
was  clear,  the  sun  shone  bright  and  the  birds  passed 
within  150  feet  of  us,  so  we  had  a  fair  view  of  them. 


254 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  country  there  is  practically  level  and  all  cleared, 
so  we  could  see  these  birds  a  long  distance.  They 
flew  in  a  northerly  direction  until  they  were  nearly  out 
of  our  range  of  vision,  when  they  circled  to  the  left 
and  came  back  on  the  northwest  side  of  us  and  about 
the  same  distance  from  us  as  they  were  when  they 
passed  at  first,  but  on  the  opposite  side,  and  we  could 
plainly  see  the  white  breasts  of  the  hens  and  the 
red  breasts  of  the  toms.  These  birds  are  a  uni¬ 
form  color  except  the  red  and  white  breasts  of  the 
toms  and  hens.  When  these  birds  are  making  a  flight 
they  fly  as  steady  as  wild  geese  or  ducks.  They  do  not 
wobble  or  crisscross,  but  go  straight  ahead,  unless 
something  frightens  them.  Then,  too,  they  have  the 
long,  pointed  tail.  Of  course,  there  are  rare  excep¬ 
tions  as  to  color.  During  our  time  we  saw  ten  or 
twelve  spotted  birds.  Some  of  them  are  about  white. 
During  the  latter  part  of  the  fifties  we  saw  a  snow- 
white  Passenger  Pigeon,  ten  or  twelve  different  times. 
We  have  photographs  in  our  memory  of  the  Passenger 
Pigeon  in  all  stages  that  are  as  plain  as  the  most  skilled 
photographer  could  have  produced  in  a  lifetime.  We 
have  seen  billions  of  these  birds.  We  have  caught 
over  sixteen  hundred  dozens  with  nets,  and  we  have 
shot  thousands  of  them.  When  a  small  boy  we  caught 
hundreds  of  them  in  quail  traps ;  so  taking  our  experi¬ 
ence  into  consideration,  we  think  we  ought  to  be  able 
to  tell  a  flock  of  Passenger  Pigeons  today,  for  our 
memory  is  good,  even  if  we  are  growing  old. 

Very  truly  yours,  C.  W.  Dickinson. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 


WILD  PIGEON  HUNTER  A  KIDNAPPER 


Dying  Confession  Clears  Mystery  of  Forty  Years 


A  KIDNAPPING  mystery  which  had  all  North¬ 
ern  Tier  county  residents  talking  forty  years 
ago,  has  been  solved  by  a  story  now  related  by 
Reuben  Daniels,  of  Sweden,  Pa.,  who  tells  how  he 
secured  under  promise  of  secrecy  during  the  life¬ 
time  of  his  informant,  a  death-bed  confession  from 
John  Nesbit,  that  he  was  responsible  for  the  dis¬ 
appearance  of  little  Henry  Schall,  the  then  three 
years  old  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Schall,  of  Den¬ 
ton  Hill,  near  Coudersport,  Pa. 

Daniels  learned  the  story  several  years  ago.  Nes¬ 
bit  temporarily  improved  in  health,  but  unknown  to 
Daniels,  died  four  years  ago.  When  Daniels  learned 
of  this,  he  came  to  the  home  of  Schall,  now  living 
at  Bradford,  and  told  his  story,  a  romantic  tale  which 
rivals  the  fabrication  of  the  most  imaginative  novelist. 
Circumstances  recalled  by  the  father  of  the  kid¬ 
napped  child  and  others  familiar  with  the  story,  help 
to  bear  out  the  facts  of  Nesbit’s  confession. 

It  was  on  October  17,  1878,  that  the  community 
of  Coudersport  was  shocked  to  learn  that  Henry 
Schall,  a  bright,  pretty  little  fellow,  was  missing 


255 


256 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


from  his  home.  The  kind  hearted  neighbors  searched 
for  days  through  the  wilds  which  then  constituted 
the  greater  part  of  Potter  county. 

Finally  they  gave  up  hope,  being  convinced  that 
the  child  had  wandered  away  from  home  and  became 
a  victim  of  wild  animals.  Bears  and  panthers  and 
even  wolves  were  then  not  uncommon  within  a  short 
distance  of  the  Schall  home. 

The  only  persons  who  did  not  give  up  hope 
were  the  father  and  mother  of  the  missing  lad,  the 
latter  maintaining  up  until  her  death  at  Bradford 
a  few  years  ago,  that  her  son  would  be  heard  from 
some  time. 

The  circumstances  of  Nesbit’s  confession  accord¬ 
ing  to  Daniels,  are  substantially  this : 

He  was  approached  early  in  1878  by  a  New 
York  man,  who  had  been  hunting  wild  pigeons  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Schall  home  in  June  of  that  year. 
This  man,  who  was  very  wealthy,  had  been  attracted 
by  the  unusual  resemblance  of  the  Schall  child  to 
his  own  son,  who  had  died  a  short  time  before.  He 
came  to  Schall  with  an  offer  to  adopt  the  son,  give 
him  a  good  education  and  make  a  good  place  for 
him  in  the  world.  The  parent-love  was  too  great 
and  the  offer  was  refused. 

The  sportsman  approached  Nesbit,  he  declared, 
at  Elkland,  a  point  60  miles  from  there,  offering  him 
$500  if  he  would  spirit  the  lad  away.  Nesbit  was 
tempted  as  he  owed  a  neighbor  $500  and  was  unable 
to  pay  it,  and  finally  consented  to  commit  the  terrible 


THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 


257 


crime.  He  declared  that  he  had  since  seen  Schall, 
then  grown  to  manhood  and  believing  himself  to  be 
the  son  of  the  New  York  man,  whose  fortune  he 
had  inherited. 

Daniels  is  searching  through  his  effects  to  try 
to  find  a  record  of  the  name  Nesbit  gave  him  and 
Schall  is  preparing  to  leave  for  New  York  to  try  to 
locate  his  son.  Schall  corroborates  the  story  of  the 
sportsman  insofar  as  the  offer  of  adoption  is  con¬ 
cerned.  He  says  that  he  connected  the  occurence 
with  the  disappearance  of  his  son,  but  being  poor 
and  unable  to  pay  his  expenses  to  New  York  at  a  time 
when  the  nearest  railroad  was  forty  miles  away  and 
travel  was  a  luxury,  was  unable  to  follow  up  the 
clue. — Milton,  Pa.,  “ Miltonian 


W  H  HAZEN 

ROULETTE  • 

PA 


... 


